Code: Insomnia
by Cdc100
Summary: Jeremy is having bad nights, so the gang tries to find out what has been causing them. JxA fluff. PLEASE leave a review, will you?
1. Midnight Horror

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation.

Chapter One

"Midnight Horror"

Aelita woke up in an area surrounded by snow. She was rolling up a snowball to the size of her body. She continued rolling snowballs and stacking them on top of one another. She giggled as she put the last snowball on top. Suddenly, a snowball came her way, then another. She picked up snow and started throwing it in the direction of the projectiles. A man in thick glasses and a woman with long pink hair were throwing them, smiling as they did so.

"Come on, Aelita! You can do better than that!" yelled the man.

Another came her way and hit the snowman.

"Ha! You missed, Daddy!" she yelled.

She tossed a snowball his way and nailed him right in the eye.

"OW!" he yelled.

Aelita and her mother came rushing to her father's side. They all laughed and laughed.

Suddenly, her parents disappeared in a fog to be replaced with a rather angry-looking wolf.

"Aaagh!" Aelita screamed in futility.

She was alone, nobody could hear her pleas. The wolf bounded for her direction, and she woke up.

Tears were streaming down her face. She wiped them off with her blanket and sat up for a moment. She decided not to let the dream bother her and laid back down. She was just about to go back to sleep when she hear an ear-piercing noise.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!"

She recognized that voice immediately. Next she heard a pound.

"Oh, my god!"

She climbed out of bed, put on her slippers and ran downstairs.

She saw a man in a white nightshirt turning on a light in one of the rooms. Several of the students had come downstairs to see what the matter was.

The man appeared to be making an attempt at calming a boy down.

"Belpois? Belpois, come back to bed!" asked the man.

"Jeremie!" she yelled.

Her friend, Jeremie Belpois, a skinny boy with blond hair, was banging on the window, apparently trying to escape from something. He began taking quick glances away from the window, and when he was finished, he would continue banging.

"What's going on, Jim?" asked Aelita.

Just then, Jeremie paused for a moment, and then continued banging on the window, gasping and panting as he did so.

"Huh! Ugh! Huh! Ugh!"

"I don't know, it looks as if he's having some kind of nightmare!" replied Jim.

Aelita looked at Jeremie's face. It was peer white. He wasn't wearing his glasses, and he had an anguished look on his face.

"Oh, no. Jeremie?"

Jeremie continued banging on the window in futility.

"Jeremie, come back to bed."

After a few more bangs, he began pounding on the window with his elbow. Seemingly deciding that force alone would not open the window, he pulled on one of the side panels.

"Ugh! Ugh!

Jeremie looked back and his eyes widened. He began pulling as hard as he could, looking back, his breath quickening every time he did so.

"Jeremie, it's me, Aelita!"

Jeremie reefed on the window once more, this time successfully opening it. He then leaned his head out of the window and looked down. He was now panting as hard as humanly possible.

"Jeremie! Everything's all right, come back to bed!"

Tears were now streaming down Aelita's face. After this, Jeremie leaned back in, and stopped gasping as much. He walked over to the bed and collapsed onto his bed. He let out a sigh of relief which seemed to last an hour long. He closed his eyes, and a tear came out of one of them.

"It's all right, Jeremie. I'm not going anywhere."

Aelita sat down next to Jeremie's bed, and began stroking his back, and made her way up to his hair.

Jeremie pulled his covers back over him and fell asleep.

"That was very good, Aelita," complimented Jim.

"Thanks. I think I'd better head back to my dorm room, now."

"Actually," said a voice, "I think it would be better if you stayed here."

Aelita and Jim looked around. Mr. Delmas was standing just outside the door.

"But, sir, girls aren't allowed to be downstairs at night," said Aelita.

"I am well aware of the school regulations, Miss Stones. However, you managed to calm Mr. Belpois down. For some odd reason, nobody else could. In this case, I think it might be a good idea to overlook that rule. Of course, if you have any objections, we can give the job to someone else."

She looked down at Jeremie. He was sound asleep. He appeared to be mumbling something.

"All right, I'll do it. Let me just go grab my stuff."

"Thank you, Miss Stones."

She went downstairs and grabbed her pillow, blanket and Mr. Puck. She then came back upstairs and lay down next to Jeremie.

She looked up at Jeremie. One of his hands was off the side of his bed. Aelita grasped it and looked at his blond locks

"Don't worry, Jeremie. I'm not going anywhere."

She fell asleep after about an hour.

To Be Continued…

Let me know if you want more chapters.


	2. Stealing the Camera

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation.

Note: I don't know if I'm spelling Jeremie's name right. I've seen it spelled, "Jeremie," and "Jeremy," so just bear with me. If anyone thinks I should change the spelling, send me a review.

Chapter Two

"Stealing the Camera"

"He just started banging on the window?" asked Odd as he began eating his croissant.

"You didn't see it?" asked Ulrich.

"Come on, you know I don't wake up that easily," replied Odd.

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Yumi as she walked over to the table.

"Jeremie was sleep walking," Odd put simply.

"Sleep walking?"

"He got up in the middle of the night and started banging on his window," explained Ulrich.

"Aelita had to come up to his room and calm him down," said Odd. He began eating a second croissant.

"I think we ought to take him to the infirmary. It could be a medical problem," suggested Ulrich.

"You know, we probably should-"

"Good morning, everybody."

They were interrupted by their blond-haired friend.

"When I woke up I found the weirdest things in my room," said Jeremie.

"What did you find?" asked Odd.

"Well, I found some hand prints on my window, and it was partway open. And when I left the room, I could swear that I saw Aelita's sleeping bag. Strange, isn't it?"

Everyone looked at each other.

"So, what were you guys talking about? Anything to do with XANA.?"

Everyone just took a look at Jeremie. They all had worried expressions on their faces.

"What?"

Odd piped up.

"I don't suppose you remember anything to do with some kind of scream from last night do you?"

"What's he talking about?" asked Jeremie.

"You got up at midnight and started banging on your window," explained Ulrich.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it gave me the chills," said Odd.

"That's odd," said Jeremie.

"Hey, I wasn't the one who started banging on my window at midnight!" joked Odd.

Ulrich shot Odd a deathglare

"Not funny," he said.

"Anyway," said Aelita, "We think it might be best if you went to the infirmary."

Jeremie looked at his hot chocolate. He seemed to be contemplating something.

"Jeremie?" asked Aelita.

"I'm fine, guys. You don't have to worry about me."

"But, Jeremie!" said Aelita.

"Butts are for ashtrays, Aelita," he replied.

"This could be something serious, Jeremie," said Yumi.

"Trust me, it's not. I'm fine. Anyway, I think we had better head to class."

"Actually, Mr. Delmas thinks it best that you don't do any class work and stay in your room," said Ulrich.

"Good. I can work on the _Skidbladnir_."

"Jeremie!" said Aelita.

"For the last time, Aelita, I'm fine. You guys should head to class. I'm gonna head back to my room." With that, Jeremie turned and headed upstairs to the boys' dorm.

"What do we do now?" asked Aelita.

"Well, we can't just sit back and let Jeremie kill himself. Let's meet at lunch and follow him."

"Time for some reconnaissance! Everybody synchronize your watches!" exclaimed Odd.

"We don't have any watches to synchronize, Odd," said Yumi.

"Oh, right. I forgot," replied Odd.

They headed to their first class.

After listening to a long lecture from Ms. Hertz, they were finally assigned their homework, which they made sure to get done in class so as to have more time to figure out Jeremie's problem. This was their last class before lunch. Odd just scribbled down some random answers and waited for his friends to finish. Aelita finished in no time at all and handed her paper into the basket. She then sat back in her desk, and as she did so, she had an idea!

The bell rang.

"Class dismissed!" said Ms. Hertz.

They waited until everybody had left the area before beginning to speak.

"Guys! I just had an Idea!" said Aelita.

"What is it?" asked Yumi.

"Jeremie has a video camera in his room. It's remote controlled. Sort of like an R/C with a camera on it's back."

"So you're saying…?" asked Odd.

"We can use the camera instead of having to follow him around."

"Good idea! Just one problem, though," said Odd.

"And what is that?" asked Yumi.

"Jeremie's in his room right now! He's not exactly going to let us just waltz in and let us take his camera," protested Odd.

"That's why we wait until Jeremie leaves his room," said Aelita.

"When? When I'm forty?" asked Odd.

"Come on, Odd. Even Jeremie needs to take bathroom breaks."

"Oh."

He looked at his feet.

"What's wrong, Odd?" asked Ulrich.

"I am just ashamed that I didn't think of that."

They made their way to the entrance of Jeremie's room, and snuck a peek. Jeremie was typing like mad on his laptop.

"Okay, we wait until he leaves his room, sneak in, and grab the camera. Any questions?" asked Yumi.

Odd raised his hand and smiled.

"Yes, Odd?" asked Yumi.

He put his hand down and pulled on his shirt.

"Does this shirt make me look fat?" asked Odd.

Yumi gave him a swift slap on the head.

"Ow!"

They waited in Ulrich's room. After about fifteen minutes, Yumi piped up.

"Any movement, Odd?"

"He's had at least five cups of water. It's gotta be soon."

"Keep on it," said Ulrich.

Aelita looked at the floor. She was worrying about Jeremie. He had never shut himself in his room like this before. He especially wouldn't do it just to work on the _Skid, _either. She could not eliminate her worry for him. Reason being? Simple: She loved him with all her heart.

"What are you thinking about, Aelita?" asked Yumi.

"Jeremie," she answered.

"That figures," said Yumi, smiling.

"I'm still trying to figure out how I'm supposed to admit my feelings to him."

"It'll come to you, don't worry."

"I keep thinking that, but for some reason it's always, "Tomorrow, I'll tell him."

"Aelita. The thing about love is that it doesn't happen when you plan it, and when it does, everything flows naturally."

"It breaks my heart to see him shut us out like this."

"Don't worry, Aelita, we'll find out what the problem is."

"Bathroom break alert!" exclaimed Odd.

They opened the door a crack, and saw Jeremie walking down the stairs. When they were sure he was gone, they made a break for his room.

"All right, let's split up and look for the camera, and hurry!" said Ulrich.

"Don't worry, we've got plenty of time," said Odd, calmly.

"What makes you say that?" asked Aelita.

"Einstein may type fast, but he's always the last one out of the bathroom," joked Odd.

"I'm going to pretend I never heard that," said Aelita.

The looked for about two minutes when…

"Jackpot!" yelled Aelita.

She was holding up a spider-like machine with a camera on its back.

"All right, let's go!" said Ulrich.

When they opened the door…

"What are you guys doing?" asked Jeremie.

"We came in here to check on you," said Aelita quickly.

"With the door closed?" asked Jeremie.

"Well, uh…" began Aelita, looking at the others for help.

"The thing is, Aelita left her things in your room, so she was just going to come and get them. But, we just remembered that the principal…" began Odd.

"Okay, I get the picture. Just, can you make sure I'm in here when you come in next time?" asked Jeremie.

"Okay, Jeremie, we'll do that," answered Aelita.

"See you at dinner, Jeremie!" yelled Ulrich.

"That was odd…" said Jeremie.

To Be Continued…


	3. On the Rooftop

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation.

Note: I don't know if I'm spelling Jeremie's name right. I've seen it spelled, "Jeremie," and "Jeremy," so just bear with me. If anyone thinks I should change the spelling, send me a review.

Chapter Three

"On the Rooftop"

Jeremie looked at his computer one more time before deciding to dismiss his friends' appearance as nothing to worry about. He began working on his desktop computer. He decided to modify the _Skid_ a little. He opened a folder on the desktop and looked at one of his newest programming plans. He opened the file, and brought up an interface that connected his desktop directly to Lyoko. He began typing away furiously at his keyboard.

"All right. If I take this program…"

He typed in a bunch of codes into the text box on his screen. He was hard at work typing code after code all Morning. After a while, a green circle with an addition sign inside it appeared.

"That should do it."

He had just installed a particle beam on each of the NavSkids, and thanks to his ingenuity, he had done so without the beams taking up much of the sub's energy. He decided that it might be best to desist with his efforts for a moment and take a walk outside.

Meanwhile…

Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita and Odd were hooking up the camera to a small TV screen in Ulrich and Odd's room.

"Do you really think that this will work?" asked Yumi.

"Are you kidding?" asked Odd. "If Einstein made this, it's bound to work."

"No, I mean, this plan of ours."

"Well, we've got no other plans," said Odd. "We'd better just give this a shot and hope for the best."

"Guess you're right," replied Yumi.

"I think we've got it connected," said Ulrich.

They had hooked up the receiver for the camera feed to their screen. Odd picked up the camera and pointed the lens at himself.

"Do you see anything?" he asked.

"Yep," answered Ulrich.

"What do you see?" asked Odd.

"I see an idiot with an antenna that he calls a 'haircut' looking at us."

"HEY!"

Everybody giggled at this.

"Oh, shut up!" yelled Odd.

They spent the next hour or so trying to figure out the camera's controls. Aelita had somehow managed to hook a wireless PlayStation 2 controller to the camera. She toggled the left analog stick, and the robot moved back and forth. She then moved the right analog stick, and the camera moved by itself.

"Cool!" exclaimed Odd.

When she pressed the cross button, it began recording; when she pressed the circle button, it stopped; when she hit the triangle button, it paused; when she hit the square button, it played back the footage; when she hit the L1 button, it rewound the recording; when she hit the R1 button, it fast-forwarded through the recording. When she hit the L2 and R2 buttons, the robot strafed left and right.

"You do a nice job, Aelita," said Yumi.

"Well, I'm not just a pretty face," she joked.

"How much power does it have?" asked Ulrich.

"I've taken a look at its power supply. We should have enough for about for hours. I brought an expander with us, so that the signal sent out by the controller and the camera feed will be transmittable throughout the school. Luckily for us, Jeremie made a charger so that we can power it back up again. Its power supply isn't unlimited, but it should be enough," said Aelita.

"Good. Now we just have to wait," said Ulrich.

They waited for about another hour.

"I think he's coming out of his room!" said Ulrich.

Sure enough, Jeremie had just decided to come out of his room and take a walk.

"Deploy the camera," said Odd.

Aelita set the mobile camera outside.

She moved the controls so that she could follow Jeremie.

"Jeremie built this camera in with a 'wall-scale' function," said Aelita.

She moved the camera to the right side of the hall, and moved its legs so that they would attach to the wall. The camera moved upwards, and then it attached itself to the ceiling. They followed Jeremie for the next hour. Aelita was now accidentally focusing the camera on Jeremie's rear end.

"Aelita!" said Odd.

"Sorry!" she exclaimed.

"She refocused the camera on Jeremie's face. He seemed depressed about something."

Jeremie looked at his shoes. He was thinking about a certain girl with pink hair. The truth is, she was not the innocent, cute, virtual girl that he had known from Lyoko that he knew he loved. She had evolved into a strong, confident girl. Suddenly, a tear began to fall from his eye. He wiped it off. He continued walking from where he was, and looked down at the ground. He began to have heart-crushing thoughts. Was Aelita not interested in him? Could she have found a different boy to be with? This made his tears fall even faster. He wiped them from his eyes, and continued walking on the grounds. He found a tree and sat down right in front of it. He leaned his back against it, and closed his eyes.

In Ulrich and Odd's room…

"Is he crying?" asked Yumi.

Aelita looked at her feet. She knew why that was. He was in love with her, and he was just about ready to give up. It hurt her to know that he really cared for her, and that he didn't think she felt the same way. She began crying herself.

"Well, if it isn't the sleepwalking nerd," said a snide voice. Jeremie looked around, and noticed that Sissi Delmas, and her two cronies, Herb Pichon and Nicholas Poliakoff were standing with her. "Are you crying?" she asked.

"No, I've got something in my eye," replied Jeremie.

"Sure, you do," said Sissi, almost smiling.

"What do you want, Delmas?" asked Jeremie.

"Did he just call Sissi by her surname?" asked Odd.

"He did," said Ulrich.

"Hey, don't talk to me like that! I own this school!" said an outraged Sissi.

"No you don't. What's more, you don't want to. You just wanna run around, mess with your hair, claim you're the most beautiful girl in the school, and blackmail Ulrich into going out with you because you can't win his heart over by yourself. How many rolls of toilet paper did you use to stuff yourself with?"

Sissi just stood there with a half-furious, half-incredulous look on her face.

In Ulrich and Odd's room, everyone just stood there with their mouth open. Jeremie had just dissed the principal's daughter.

"Let's all pause for a second while you figure out a comeback," finished Jeremie. He was not smiling, but sounded triumphant.

"Now see here!" began Sissi.

"Wow, that didn't take as long as I'd imagined," said Jeremie.

"Uuuugh!" yelled Sissi. She just turned around and walked off with Herb and Nicholas in toe.

Jeremie got up, and started heading back to his room. He needed to continue working on his programs.

"He's on the move!" exclaimed Odd.

"I can't believe Jeremie just dissed Sissi!" said Ulrich. "Using her blackmailing me, her ego, and her hair against her, and tying it all together by asking her if she stuffs herself with toilet paper, it's an unprecedented triumph!"

"I am just disappointed that I didn't think of it myself!" said Odd.

Aelita thought in her head, "I'm in love," and smiled at Jeremie's brilliance. Suddenly, she was frowning again. She had wanted to say those words out loud, but was ashamed because she knew that the reason that Jeremie was sad was her silence.

Jeremie made his way back to his room deep in thought. He thought of his pink-haired beauty with green eyes. Another tear fell down his cheek, but he decided that he would take his mind off of this with a little computer work. He changed into his pajamas in the bathroom, and then sat down at his desktop. He needed to find some way to bring back William. He spent hours on the computer typing in codes, codes and more codes. After a while, he was still on his computer, but with no progress on getting William back. He tried every program he had written. He finally decided that it would probably be best to work on the _Skidbladnir_ some more. A few hours later, he fell asleep with his keyboard as a pillow.

"Typical Einstein," said Odd with a sigh.

"It's getting late. We should probably take turns watching him," said Ulrich.

"I'll go first," said Aelita.

"I'll go next," said Odd.

"How about if I go after that, and then Yumi can finish up for the night?" suggested Ulrich.

Aelita sat down in front of the TV screen. She was looking at Jeremie sitting on his chair, laying on his keyboard. She sat there for an hour wondering whether there was anything she could do for him. She looked at him once again. He looked so cute when he slept. She began wondering if maybe he would feel better if she told him how she felt. After her shift, Aelita decided to go get Odd and go to sleep. Odd would wake them up if he found anything out.

Jeremie was being chased by scary, terrifying voices. He got up from his seat, and began running. He needed to escape! He ran through a door, down a hall, up stairs, and up more stairs. Finally, he realized that he was at a dead end.

Aelita awoke to the sound of another one of Jeremie's screams.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

"We have movement!" said Yumi.

Everybody was up and out of their beds immediately following the scream. Everybody got down and looked at the screen. Jeremie was sitting at his desktop computer, with that same anguished expression that he had on his face before. Sweat was streaming down his forehead.

"Is he having another one?" asked Odd.

"It seems so," replied Ulrich. He looked terrified.

Jeremie got up from the computer and walked fast to the door, his head darting left and right as he went.

"BELPOIS!" yelled Jim.

"Jeremie!" yelled Aelita.

Jeremie darted past all of the students in the hall who had apparently heard the screams. Milly and Tamiya were scribbling something down on their notepads. Jeremie scrambled up the stairs and went, of all places to the rooftop! He was dead scared of heights and he was on the rooftop! He was now standing on the edge, seemingly trying to decide whether or not to jump.

"JEREMIE!"

Aelita ran over to Jeremie's side, and looked at him. Everybody was murmuring something, and Jeremies head seemed to dart in the direction of everybody's voice.

"Belpois! Jeremie!" said Mr. Delmas.

Jeremie looked back and blinked his eyes at this. He looked around, and shook his head a couple of times.

"Huh…?" he said as he looked at us.

"Jeremie, what are you doing?!" asked Mr. Delmas.

"Huh?" he said again.

He looked down, and gasped.

"WHOA!" he yelled, and he shot back, still standing, and saw the school grounds. He closed his eyes, grasped his chest in relief, and clicked his tongue. He looked back at all the people who were staring at him.

"Thank you," he said.

With that, he turned around and walked off. He walked back down the stairs and into his room. He closed the door, and went back to bed.

"That was so scary!" said Aelita.

"Don't worry, Princess. He's back in his bed now," said Odd.

"But what if it happens again?" she asked.

"We'll just have to pray that it doesn't," replied Yumi.

They all went back to their rooms. Yumi headed back to her house, and Ulrich and Odd continued watching Jeremie well into the night. Aelita fell asleep feeling uneasy, and worrying about him. She decided that she would take him to the infirmary tomorrow.


	4. Jeremie's Explanation

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation.

Note: I don't know if I'm spelling Jeremie's name right. I've seen it spelled, "Jeremie," and "Jeremy," so just bear with me. If anyone thinks I should change the spelling, send me a review. Yolande is pronounced, "Yo-lawn-duh."

Chapter Four

"Jeremie's Explanation"

Aelita and the others were sitting at their usual breakfast table once again talking about Jeremie's strange sleepwalking.

"I can't take anymore of this," said Aelita. "We have to take him to the infirmary! We have to!"

"We know, Aelita, calm down!" said Yumi.

"I swear, Jeremie is going to kill himself if this keeps up!" remarked Odd.

"Odd, stay," said Yumi.

"I'm not a dog, Yumi," said Odd.

"Yeah, well, people say the same thing to cats."

Odd scowled.

"What are we going to do?" asked Aelita. "I can't take a whole school year of Jeremie trying to throw himself out windows and off the top of buildings."

"Do you think any of us feel differently?" asked Ulrich.

"Did you find anything out about what he has, Aeltia?" asked Odd.

Aelita had been doing research on her computer during the night of Jeremie's latest sleepwalking episode.

"I checked Ask Jeeves for some kind of hint. I didn't find anything new," she replied.

"Ask Jeeves?! Nobody uses Ask Jeeves!" said Odd.

"Well, what else could I have tried?!" asked Aelita.

"Next time, try Wikipedia or Google," replied Ulrich.

"Oh, never would have thought of that," said Aelita.

Just then Jeremie entered the cafeteria. Everyone looked around and saw Jeremie at the entrance. The whole cafeteria got quiet.

"He looks like he slept real well," said Odd, a tone of sarcasm in his voice.

Indeed, Jeremie looked horrible. His hair wasn't combed, his glasses were askew, his shirt was only partway tucked in, and, most disturbingly, he had an imprint of big red squares on his forehead.

"He must have just pretended to go back to sleep, and then stayed up all night once again. Probably trying to figure out ways to modify the Skid, or bring back William," said Yumi.

"Good morning, everybody," said Jeremie, sitting down at their table with his breakfast.

"'Morning," replied the others simultaneously.

"So, did you guys get a good night's sleep?" asked Jeremie.

"No," answered the others.

Jeremie looked at the others with a confused look, and then started on his breakfast.

"So, how did you sleep?" asked Odd with a frown.

"Oh, I slept fine," answered Jeremie, taking a bite of toast.

"Oh, please, you are such a liar!" yelled Aelita.

"What?" asked Jeremie.

"Forget it, Jeremie. You can't deny it anymore," said Ulrich.

"What?" asked Jeremie again.

"You were sleepwalking on the roof last night!" said Aelita.

With that, Jeremie got up to leave. He wasn't about to listen to a lecture on his health from his friends.

"Jeremie! Listen to me! You are obviously not well!" said Aelita.

"I'm fine, you guys. You don't have to worry about me," said Jeremie.

"You are not fine! If you slept for one night, you would tell us that yourself!" protested Aelita.

"Look. I don't have time to worry about how much sleep I get at night. If I don't work, William can never be brought back, and XANA can never be defeated," answered Jeremie, now agitated.

"Well, well," said a snide voice. "The sleepwalker strikes again."

It was Sissi. She was standing there with another triumphant look on her face.

"What would possess you to try and jump off the roof?" she asked.

"It's none of your business, Delmas," he answered.

"I thought I told you not to talk to me like that!" she retorted.

"And I believe I told you not to bother me, don't you remember? Or has your brain shrunk since yesterday? At that second I believe it was the size of a sesame seed," he answered, calmly.

"UGH!" she turned around and walked off.

"Jeremie, you need to go to the infirmary, and if you don't, we will drag you there," said Ulrich.

"I am not going to the infirmary, and I sure as heck am not going to let you drag me there," said Jeremie. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work."

With that, he turned on his heel and walked off, leaving the others agitated.

"Guys, we've got us a problem," said Odd.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," said Ulrich.

Yumi suddenly had an idea.

"We don't have to take him to the infirmary to find out what's wrong," she said.

Everyone looked at her. She was right. They hurried to the office to see Yolande Perraudin, the school nurse. They knocked on the door, and a woman with short blond hair opened the door.

"Hello, everyone."

"Hey, Yolande," said Odd.

"What can I help you with?" she asked.

"We came to ask you some questions," said Yumi.

"Regarding?"

"Jeremie Belpois," said Ulrich.

"I see. Care to elaborate?" she asked.

"Jeremie woke up in the middle of the night two nights ago- well, not exactly- and tried to open the window in his room. He succeeded, and he almost jumped out of it," said Aelita.

"And if it weren't for Aelita, he might not have been here the next day," said Odd.

"But, last night, he did the same thing, only he tried to jump off the roof. But before he had the chance, he woke up, and went back to his room without another word," said Aelita.

They then proceeded to tell the nurse that they believed the problem to be psychological, though they were mum as to the reason for that assumption. Yolande took out a clipboard and began scribbling some notes down. She looked like she had already thought of something.

"Did you notice anything that Jeremie did while in this state?" she asked.

"Well, he was always taking big, huge gasps for breath," said Ulrich.

"Interesting," said Yolande.

"He also had this glazed look in his eye, and he looked like he was trying to run from something," added Aelita.

"Nothing else?" asked Yolande.

"Before he gets up from his bed, he would let out a blood-curdling scream," said Yumi.

"Hmm. Alright, let me just look at a few things," said Yolande.

She went to her bookshelf, took down a book and began looking at it. She made her way to her office and turned around.

"I'll be out as soon as I can," she said.

She then went into her office and shut the door. Odd looked at the others.

"Do you think she knows something we don't?" he asked.

"Well, that's why we're here, isn't it?" asked Ulrich.

"Oh, yeah. Of course," answered Odd.

They waited for about a half hour, voicing their opinions on Jeremie's condition until Yolande came out of her office.

"I've found out what it is," she said, sitting down.

Everyone sat on the edge of their seat, and leaned in so as to hear her clearly.

"They're called night terrors, and as you suspected, they are psychological."

"Night terrors?" asked Odd.

Yolande nodded her head.

"Many people confuse these with nightmares, but believe it or not, there is a difference," Yolande explained. "First, they occur during the deepest levels of non-REM sleep, whereas nightmares occur during REM sleep. Basically, they are fast asleep when it happens. That's why they're not easily awakened. Mr. Delmas must have really been yelling in order to snap Jeremie out of it. Also, when someone tries to awaken the sufferers, they are not fully awakened. Another difference is that the sufferers often cannot remember whether they've had a night terror. The only thing they can remember is a brief feeling of significant fear. And nothing is dreamt during night terrors.

"Jeremie suffers from this?" asked Aelita.

"If what we assume is correct," answered Yolande.

"How are they brought on?" asked Aelita.

"Night terrors mostly occur in children. They can sometimes be hereditary, but more often, they are associated with stress. They can come in different forms. Some people sleepwalk, and some wake up screaming in the middle of the night. I happen to have a friend in Massachusetts who suffers from the exact same thing."

"Do you think that Jeremie knows that he gets them?" asked Ulrich.

"It's possible. They have been known to start in children, and some adults and early teenagers have been known to get them. Based on the behavior you just described to me, and his student file, Jeremie Belpois is a classic case," answered Yolande.

The gang looked at one another.

"Thanks for your help, Yolande," said Odd.

"Anytime, Odd," answered Yolande.

With that, they left the nurse's office, and went to find Jeremie in his bedroom.

"Hey, guys. Is there something I can help you with?" he asked.

"We just went to the nurse's office," said Yumi, crossing her arms.

"You guys just cannot drop it, can you?" asked Jeremie.

"Can you at least give us an explanation? I think we deserve that much," interjected Odd.

Jeremie sighed and turned around in his chair. He decided that if it would make them shut up, he would tell them. He told them about his night terrors on the condition that they would do so. He told them that he started getting them when he was around eight. He said that the night terrors would come and go as they please, though they happened at least once every three days. He told them that it was caused by stress, and that being the smartest kid in the school, he was constantly bullied. It was very stressful for him as a kid to be bullied. He explained to them that this was the reason he was moved to Kadic Academy. He also told them that he was rarely ever bothered at Kadic, and eventually, the night terrors stopped. But they were back with a vengeance.

"So that is what you're suffering from?" asked Ulrich.

"I haven't had them since I was ten," answered Jeremie.

"You say that they are brought on by stress?" asked Odd.

"Yes. Though, I don't know what could be causing them now," answered Jeremie.

Aelita hung her head. She had a pret-ty good idea what it was that was causing Jeremie's newly-acquired night terrors.

"Now, if there is nothing else, could you guys go? I need to work on the Skid."

"Jeremie, this is serious!" said Yumi. "You sleepwalk when you have these night-hells, if you don't go to a hospital or the infirmary, you could seriously injure yourself, or worse, kill yourself."

"And then, who will help us on Lyoko?" asked Ulrich.

"Guys, this is the last time that I am going to say this, so listen good. I can take care of myself. There is no need for you to worry about these night terrors. Now, if you'll excuse me."

With that, he headed out of his room, taking his laptop with him.

"Now we really have a problem," said Odd.

"At this rate, he'll have ten night terrors by the end of this week," said Aelita with a tone of concern in her voice.

To Be Continued…


	5. Aelita's Confession

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation.

Note: I don't know if I'm spelling Jeremie's name right. I've seen it spelled, "Jeremie," and "Jeremy," so just bear with me. If anyone thinks I should change the spelling, send me a review. Yolande is pronounced, "Yo-lawn-duh."

Chapter Five

"Aelita's Confession"

Jeremie was in the factory typing on the supercomputer, typing in code after code. He decided that he might work on the group's powers a little. He was working on their Lyoko powers until about five o' clock when he came across Aelita's profile. Aelita… He was still unsure of how he was ever going to reveal to Aelita how he felt. A tear escaped his eyelid, and he turned around in his computer chair, walked up to the wall, leaned his arm against it, and put his head against it. He loved Aelita with all of his heart, but he was unsure if she felt the same way. Whether he realized it or not, it was slowly but surely causing him to doubt himself.

Aelita looked at the spot where Jeremie had been standing.

"Now what are we going to do?" asked Odd.

"I don't know," said Yumi.

Aelita looked down at her shoes. She suddenly had an idea.

"Guys?"

"Yeah, Princess?" asked Odd.

"Would you come with me to the factory?"

"Why?" asked Ulrich.

"I think I know how to persuade Jeremie," answered Aelita.

"Really?" asked Odd.

"Yes," said Aelita.

"How?" asked Yumi.

"I'm going to need you guys to just trust me with this," said Aelita.

Everyone looked at each other, seemingly weighing the pros and cons, the former seemingly outweighing the latter, because they nodded their heads.

"Lead the way, Aelita," said Yumi.

Aelita smiled, and then walked down the hall. The others followed her curiously. She led them out of the school grounds, and then, when they knew that they were out of sight and earshot, she broke into a run and stopped right in front of the manhole that led to the factory. She took one of the scooters that was leaned against the wall of the sewer, and began scooting down the tunnel. She stopped directly below another manhole, and then climbed the ladder that led to the top, and opened it.

Jeremie thought of the times he and Aelita had spent together, and suddenly had a dark thought. He remembered when Aelita had pretended to kiss Odd to steer Herb Pichon and Nicholas Poliakoff away from the factory. His thought was Odd and Aelita kissing, for real, and sneering at him as they did so. Aelita walked away from Odd toward Jeremie. She put her head right next to his.

"I don't love you, Jeremie," she said. She sounded happy about it.

She walked back to Odd with a smile on her face. She then kissed Odd square on the lips, she then began making out with him. She kissed him again, and again, and again.

Jeremie snapped back to reality. He looked back at the supercomputer. He began to feel dizzy… he looked at the ground, and began to feel nauseous. He struggled to find some way to balance himself, but to no avail. He fell to the ground, supported himself with his arms, and emptied the contents of his stomach before everything went black.

Aelita made her way into the factory and grabbed one of the ropes, slid down to the floor, and walked to the elevator.

"Get in," she said.

She punched in the numbers: 7, 1, 3, 0, check, 5, 1. The elevator doors closed, and they began to descend.

Jeremie was regaining conciousness.

"My head. It hurts," he said to himself.

It was at that moment that Aelita and the others came out of the elevator. They saw Jeremie laying on the floor, getting up, rubbing his head.

"Jeremie!" yelled Aelita.

She rushed over to Jeremie's side, and steadied him.

"I'm fine, Aelita," he pushed her hand off of him, and then started to walk, only to fall back down, but this time Odd and Ulrich caught him.

"Okay, you win. I'm not fine. Are you happy?" asked Jeremie.

"What happened?" asked Ulrich.

Jeremie upchucked again.

"Ugh… The last thing I remember… I fell down, and I…" he passed out before he could finish his sentence.

"Jeremie!" yelled Aelita.

Jeremie saw Aelita in front of him. She had a look of malice on her face. She let out a small grin, soon replaced with a look of disdain. She drew her hand back, and with all her might, hauled off and slapped him across his cheek.

Aelita was slapping Jeremie lightly on the face.

"Jeremie! Jeremie!" she called.

"What?" he asked.

"Ugh! What did you have for breakfast, Einstein?" asked Odd.

Odd was looking at the gutpile that Jeremie left behind.

"You don't want to know," he replied.

"Are you alright?" asked Aelita.

"I guess not," he answered.

She looked at Jeremie. She put her hand on his shoulder. He was vibrating like her cell phone.

"You're shaking."

She took her coat off, and laid it on top of Jeremie.

"Is that better?" she asked.

Jeremie looked at Aelita. She had a look of great concern in her eyes.

"Warm. Thank you, Aelita."

Aelita put a hand to his head. He was cool as a cucumber.

"You're not even warm," said Aelita.

She then observed a swollen spot on his head.

"What happened here?" she asked, pressing the spot with her finger.

"Ow," he replied.

"Sorry!" said Aelita.

"It's all right."

"How did that happen?"

"When I passed out the first time, I threw up, and then I hit the floor."

"Does that hurt?" she asked.

"It comes and goes," he answered. "There's a few brain cells I'll never get back."

"Your brain cells are the last thing you should be worried about right now, Einstein," said Odd.

They sat for a minute, and just stayed by Jeremie's side. Aelita rubbed his back, up and down, up and down.

"Feeling better?" she asked.

"Not quite," said Jeremie, covering his mouth. He ran to a trashcan on the other side of the room, and emptied his stomach contents once again.

"Ugh. What is going…?"

Aelita came over to him. He was shaking worse than before. She rubbed his back again, and he seemed to calm down.

"Come here, Jeremie," she said.

She led him over to the other side of the room, and sat him down. She then sat down beside him.

"Rest your head here," she said, patting her lap with her hand.

He hesitated for a moment, and then slowly turned his body. He sat his head down slowly. She took off his glasses, and set them to the side. She and Ulrich both sat their jackets down on top of him. After a few minutes, he nodded off.

_If it weren't for that infernal computer, Jeremie wouldn't have to go through all of this_, she thought.

"You all right, Aelita?" asked Yumi.

"I'm fine. I'm just worried about Jeremie."

"Well, that's natural," replied the dark-haired girl.

Aelita looked down at the boy sleeping on her lap. She saw a tear escape his eye. Suddenly, she felt one escape hers. She knew that he must have been dreaming about her.

Jeremie saw Aelita once again. She was in the woods. He could see her standing next to William Dunbar this time. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips. She began kissing him like there was no tomorrow. They both faded away, to be replaced by a round room with no exit. Heard a terrifying cackle behind him. He got up and started running, trying to find some way to escape. He needed to get out.

Aelita looked down, Jeremie opened his eyes, and sat up out of her lap. He shot up and grabbed his head.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" he yelled. The gang's ears were bleeding.

"He's having another night terror!" exclaimed Yumi.

"Jeremie!" said Aelita.

He stood up, and ran around the computer room. He began banging on the walls until he found the elevator. He began trying to pry open the door with his hands.

"Jeremie, it's me, Aelita!" she said. She was crying now.

Jeremie continued to pry on the door.

"JEREMIE!" they all yelled at the same time.

Jeremie shook his head, closed his eyes and looked around. He was back in the computer room.

"Did I?"

"You did," said Odd.

Jeremie looked at the floor. He felt so embarrassed. He was having night terrors, banging on windows, trying to jump off roofs, trying to pry open elevator doors, and throwing up in front of the love of his life.

Odd and Ulrich came over to him and picked him up. They put his arms over his shoulders so as to keep him up. They led him to the elevator. Aelita typed in the code for the elevator once again.

They went to the bathroom upstairs and fixed Jeremie up. He had a nosebleed from the fall to the floor, so they gave him some Kleenex for it. Aelita gave him an ice pack to put on his head, and he washed out his mouth a few times with water from the sink. They then went back downstairs to clean up Jeremie's mess.

"I can get it, you guys," insisted Jeremie.

With that, he set to work.

"Guys? Can you give us a moment?" asked Aelita.

They did as they were asked, and went back into the elevator. When she heard the sound of the elevator going back up, she began to speak.

"Jeremie?" asked Aelita.

He was looking at the floor, still working on his mess. He seemed sad.

"I want to tell you something," she said.

"I'm listening," he answered.

She didn't know where to begin. She wanted to tell him so many things.

"Jeremie, I know why you're having these night terrors, and why you passed out just now."

Jeremie looked up at her, and then back down at the spot where he upchucked. Aelita bent down, and took the washcloth away from Jeremie, setting it aside. She then put a hand on his cheek, and turned his head to her.

"I know because it's the same reason that I worry about you."

Jeremie didn't say anything. He just stared into his favorite girl's emerald green eyes. They were so beautiful.

"You're working so hard because you are trying to find my father… for me."

He didn't say anything. He could feel sweat trickling down his forehead.

"You're trying to show me that you care for me, and it's stressful for you, because you are having doubts about whether I care for you, and you're about ready to give up."

Jeremie almost fell backwards, but Aelita caught him.

"I want you to know this…"

Jeremie was listening intently.

"You are overworking yourself. You should not be shutting us out like this and locking yourself up in your room for the sake of Lyoko."

She said this in an almost judgmental tone. It felt like a blow to the gut. Jeremie had half a mind to back away, and half a mind to counter with something.

"But that's okay. I realize now that you are doing this because…"

Jeremie sat silent.

"You love me," she finished. "And you know what?"

Jeremie was mentally shooting himself in the head. She was going to say the words that he had been dreading ever since he met Aelita.

"I love you, too."

Or not.

"I want you to know something else, too. I appreciate everything you've done for me. Materializing me, trying to find me an antivirus, helping me find my dad. You didn't have to, but you did. Thank you."

She pulled him closer, and hugged him.

"Am I right? Do you love me?"

He looked at her eyes. He couldn't think of anything else to say. He mouthed the word, "Yes."

She leaned into him, and caught his lips with hers. She gave him a long, sweet, loving, beautiful, passionate kiss. After a minute, he kissed back.

"I love you, Aelita," Jeremie said, finally.

"I love you, too, Jeremie," said Aelita.

Jeremie pulled her into another kiss. They spent the next fifteen minutes in the computer room, kissing and hugging.

"Jeremie?" asked Aelita.

"Yes, Princess?"

"For the very first time, I'm going to ask you to do something for me."

"What is it?"

"I want you to go to the infirmary, or the hospital. I can't stand to see you go through one more of these. They terrify me. I don't want you to have any more of them because of me. If this keeps up, you'll have ten of them by the end of this week."

"I-" began Jeremie.

"Please? For me?" asked Aelita. She looked at Jeremie again. She looked at him with such sincerity, such care in her eyes.

"Okay, Aelita. I'll go to the infirmary."

Aelita gasped and then leapt onto Jeremie and kissed him on the lips.

"Thank you, Jeremie. For everything."

Jeremie kissed her on the lips again.

"You're welcome."

To Be Continued…

Let me know if you guys think that this chapter should have been longer.


	6. Not Again!

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation. If anybody is wondering about the night terror thing, I got it from Boston Legal. I might use more story points from Boston Legal.

Note: I don't know if I'm spelling Jeremie's name right. I've seen it spelled, "Jeremie," and "Jeremy," so just bear with me. If anyone thinks I should change the spelling, send me a review. Yolande is pronounced, "Yo-lawn-duh." And if you're going to read this story, PLEASE at least have the decency to leave a review!

Chapter Six

"Not Again!"

Jeremie tried to stand up, but as he did so, he had a dizzy spell, and fell back to the ground. He got back up again, steadied himself against the wall, and then stood up, only then to fall back down yet again.

"Jeremie, here," Aelita said, extending her hand.

Jeremie took her hand, and she lifted him up off of the ground. She put his arm over her shoulder, and led him out of the computer room.

"Aelita, I need to tell you something," said Jeremie as they were getting into the elevator.

"What is it, Jeremie?" asked Aelita as she punched in the code.

Jeremie took his arm off Aelita and sat while the elevator took them up. He looked at the ground and tried to think. Finally, he spoke.

"I'm sorry I took so long to tell you how I feel," he said.

Aelita just looked at him with her mouth open.

"Are you mad?" he asked.

Aelita bent down, smiled, and kissed the love of her life right square on the lips.

"No, Jeremie. I'm not. And I forgive you."

Jeremie smiled at this.

The elevator door opened, and just outside stood their friends. Aelita stood Jeremie up, and Ulrich came over to help her steady him.

"I'm sorry I shut you guys out," said Jeremie.

"Aw, it's fine, Einstein," said Odd.

They carried him over to the door leading to the storage room in Kadic, and Jeremie finally spoke.

"Hey, Aelita?" he asked.

"Yes, Jeremie?" she responded.

"Why don't you go ahead and walk with Yumi? I think I'll be fine with just Ulrich," he said.

Aelita looked at him. He had an exhausted look on his face. She couldn't bear to see him like this.

"No, Jeremie. I'll stay here with you."

Jeremie was surprised.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"I'm sure," she replied.

When she was sure that the others were not looking, she stood up a little higher and gave Jeremie a kiss on the cheek. Jeremie blushed crimson. He was not used to this… yet. He looked back at the pink-haired girl standing next to him. She looked so beautiful.

The gang led Jeremie down the tunnel to the Kadic Academy boiler room. Jeremie kept insisting that he could walk, only to be proven wrong by his uneasy stomach. Whenever they let him go, he stood where he was momentarily, and then started to crash to the ground. He finally gave up and let them lead him to the infirmary. At one moment, they encountered Mr. Delmas.

"What's going on here?" he asked.

"Jeremie passed out, sir. We're taking him to the infirmary," explained Aelita.

Mr. Delmas looked at Jeremie and saw that he looked a bit pale.

"Is everything alright, Belpois?" he asked.

"I've had better days, sir," said Jeremie.

Mr. Delmas took a quick scan of Jeremie.

"Thank you for finding him and bringing him here. You children need not carry him any further. Ah, Jim!"

Just then, Jim came from behind a door, and spoke to Mr. Delmas.

"Yes, sir?" asked Jim.

"Carry Belpois to the infirmary."

"You've got it, Jean-Pierre."

Jim relieved Ulrich and Odd of Jeremie and began walking to the infirmary. Mr. Delmas motioned for the group to follow him. When they finally reached the infirmary, Yolande took Jeremie's blood pressure and his temperature.

"Your temperature is seven degrees below normal, your blood pressure is slightly lower, and you've suffered a minor blow to your head. I would suggest that you drink plenty of liquids, stay in bed, and keep this ice pack on your head. The principal has given you permission to stay in your dorm room and away from class. Also, your friends tell me that you have been having night terrors. I think that you should have someone move into your dorm room with you."

"Good idea, Yolande," said Jim.

"Hmm. Would you mind elaborating on the incident, Miss Stones?" asked Mr. Delmas.

Aelita looked at Jeremie. She thought about telling Mr. Delmas what happened, just not where it happened. When she saw Jeremie nod her head, she spoke.

"We found Jeremie standing against a tree as if he was trying to keep his balance. He lost his balance, and he fell to the ground. He then vomited and fell unconscious. We walked up to him at the point where he passed out."

"We began trying to wake him up. Aelita finally managed to rouse Jeremie and he threw up again. When he was fully awakened, he was cold as ice, and shaking. We took him back to his dorm room and laid him down, but after he fell asleep, he had another night terror," said Yumi.

"Night terror?" asked Mr. Delmas.

"I just recently diagnosed him, Jean-Pierre," said Yolande.

"All right, children, you can go out into the hall and wait with Belpois," said Mr. Delmas.

The gang went outside, and Yolande locked the door.

"Hmph. Reminds me of when I worked as a psychiatrist," commented Jim.

"You used to work as a psychiatrist, Jim?" asked Mr. Delmas.

"I'd rather not talk about it," said Jim.

"Enough about that, could you explain, Yolande?" asked Mr. Delmas.

Yolande began explaining night terrors to the principal. After the explanation, he just stood there, aghast. He then called Ms. Hertz, and some of the other teachers.

"That's what's been causing Jeremie to try and kill himself?!" asked Mr. Delmas.

"We obviously need to notify the hospital," said Ms. Hertz.

"No, we can't have that. If it got out to the public that a student here at Kadic Academy starts banging on his window in the middle of the night…" said Yolande.

"Yeah, God forbid," said Jim.

"He runs up on the roof when he's asleep?!" asked Mr. Delmas.

"It just doesn't make any sense," began Ms. Hertz. "What could be causing him to have them?"

"They have been known to be brought on by stress," said Yolande. "You remember my friend from Massachusetts?"

"Alan Shore?" asked Jim.

"Yes," answered Yolande.

"The scumbag?" asked Ms. Hertz.

"Yes," answered Yolande.

"We remember," said Ms. Hertz and Jim, simultaneously.

"He suffers from the exact same thing," said Yolande.

"He just tries to kill himself?" asked Mr. Delmas.

"Yes, Jean-Pierre, he tries to kill himself when he's asleep, can we move on?" asked Ms. Hertz.

"We need to move somebody into his room for when he's asleep," said Yolande.

"No, we have to tell the hospital," said Mr. Delmas.

"That would only be used in the event of an emergency," said Jim.

"He's a suicidal sleeper!" yelled Mr. Delmas.

"SHHH!" said Ms. Hertz.

"Don't shush me, Suzanne!"

"Are there any medications for this sort of thing, Yolande?" asked Jim.

"Well, yes, but the FDA has yet to approve it."

"How long does it take for them to approve it?" asked Suzanne.

"It could take anywhere from half a year to two years."

"We certainly can't wait that long," said Mr. Delmas.

"Exactly. That's why I think that it would probably be best if we move someone into his dorm room to stop him from jumping off anything," said Yolande.

"Well, who would you suggest?" asked Mr. Delmas.

"Well, you did give her the job the first night Jeremie had a night terror."

"Stones?" he asked.

He then thought back, he remembered that he did indeed put her to the task.

"All right, if this works, we won't tell the hospital. But, in the event that it becomes serious…"

"We sing like a canary," said Jim.

"Wonder what they're talking about in there," said Odd.

Everyone else just shrugged. Two seconds later, Mr. Delmas came out followed by Jim.

"Stones, go up to your dorm and grab your belongings," said Jim.

Aelita looked up at Jim. She was frightened. Had they found out that she wasn't really Odd's cousin?

"Yes, sir."

She went up to her room and got every last bit of paper and all of her belongings.

"Good, now follow me," said Jim.

She followed him down to the bottom floor and into Jeremie's bedroom.

"Miss Stones, you will be living in Belpois' room until further notice."

"What?" asked Aelita. She had long dreamed of this, but she never dreamt that it would happen while they were in school!

"Is there a problem?" asked Jim.

"No, sir. No problem."

With that, Jim nodded his head and walked off. Aelita spent the rest of the afternoon setting her stuff up on the other bed.

Jeremie came walking in at the end of the day to find one half of his room plastered with pink. He stood there with a frightened look on his face.

"What the?!"

"Jeremie?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" yelled Jeremie, jumping up ten feet in the air.

"Sorry!" said the voice.

"Aelita?" asked Jeremie.

"Yeah, it's me."

"Aelita, you scared me," said Jeremie.

"Sorry, Jeremie. Can you forgive me?"

"Of course I can."

Aelita smiled at her prince's deep blue eyes.

"So, uh, what're all of your belongings doing in my room?" asked Jeremie.

Aelita looked at the bed opposite Jeremie's. It had posters of popular musicians on the walls.

"Oh, right. Um… the principal has told me that I'm to stay in your room with you to keep you safe."

Jeremie's heart jumped. He was sharing a room with the love of his life!

"Jeremie? Are you all right?" asked the pink-haired girl standing in front of him.

"Huh? Oh, yeah! I'm all right."

"Good, I'll be back in the dorm around eight. By the way, the principal and the nurse say that it's important for you to stay in bed. He'll have all homework sent to your room."

She grabbed his arm and began leading him over to the bed.

"In the meantime, why don't you get some rest?"

She laid Jeremie down in his bed, and pulled the covers over him.

"Thanks, Princess," said Jeremie.

"You're welcome, Jeremie," she said, kissing him on the cheek before heading downstairs.

He did as he was told, and eventually fell asleep. He was filled with thoughts of Aelita, and what they would do after they finally defeated XANA.

He woke up to a small shake on his shoulder.

"Jeremie?" asked a voice.

Jeremie moaned and stirred slightly.

"Jeremie?" asked the voice again.

He yawned and then sat all the way up.

"What?" he asked. He let his eyes focus, and saw the pink-haired girl he had been dreaming about.

"I brought you some dinner. Yolande says it's important to keep your stomach full," said Aelita.

He looked down. Indeed, she was holding a tray of assorted foods. There was an apple, a croissant, a cup of hot chocolate, and a small bowl of oatmeal.

"Thanks, princess," said Jeremie.

She nodded, and then sat down on the other bed. Jeremie looked down at his tray. After a few minutes, he spoke up.

"Hey, Aelita?"

"Yes, Jeremie?"

"Would you like to piece off of this with me?" he asked.

"Oh, no. The nurse said you had to eat it."

"I know, I just don't think I could eat this all by myself. And, seeing as you and I are roommates now, I wondered if maybe you wouldn't mind my sharing with you."

Aelita looked at the tray, and then at the boy holding it.

"Okay," she finally said, walking over to the side of the bed and sitting on her knees.

Jeremie picked up the apple and split it for the two of them to eat. He gave one half to Aelita, and bit into the other half. Jeremie then took his spoon and fed some of his oatmeal to Aelita. After about a half hour, they were in their beds. Aelita was reading a pamphlet that Yolande had given her, and Jeremie was reading a copy of "HTML 4 For Dummies."

"Well, I guess I've got it all figured out," said Aelita.

"Let's hope so," said Jeremie, putting a bookmark in his book and then closing it.

Aelita looked over at Jeremie. When she did so, she had a horrifying image in her mind.

"Let me see your homework, shrimp!" said a boy about Aelita's age.

"No, I worked really hard on this!" said a squeaky voice.

"I said, give it here!" said the boy again.

"No, give it back!"

She heard a thud, and the boy groaned.

"You're gonna pay for that, four-eyed small fry!"

He wheeled his hand back, and Aelita heard the squeaky voice again.

"No! Stop! Please!"

BAM! The boy's fist had just made contact. Aelita could hear the squeaky voice break down crying. The boy walked off, and, right there, laying on the ground in the fetal position, Aelita saw a boy with blond hair and glasses. One of the lenses was busted, and he had a black eye.

Aelita felt tears in her eyes. She got out of bed and knelt near Jeremie.

"I'm so sorry, Jeremie."

Tears were now streaming down her face. She leaned forward and hugged him. After a moment, she felt him put his hand on her back.

"It's all right, Princess."

When Aelita had finished hugging Jeremie, she walked back over to her bed and turned off her light. Jeremie then took off his glasses and turned off his light. They both fell asleep after about another hour.

Huff Puff Huff Puff

Aelita woke up to these sounds. She rubbed her eyes, and looked around for the source of the noise.

She looked over and saw Jeremie sitting up in his bed.

"Jeremie?" she asked, cautiously.

He had the same glazed look in his eye, and his eyebrows were furrowed.

"Jeremie…?" she asked again, slowly.

He looked over at her, his breath quickened, and his eyes widened.

"Jeremie!"

He threw his covers back, got up and walked fast to the window.

"Jeremie? Oh, no," Aelita said.

She got out the pamphlet that Yolande gave her and began saying things to Jeremie.

"Jeremie, come back to bed!"

Jeremie was moving his computer aside so that he could reach the window. He then began banging on it.

"Jeremie, it's me!"

Jeremie looked back at Aelita, his breath quickened again, he wheeled his arm and lunged his fist forward.

"OW!" yelled Aelita. She touched her face, there was a strange pressure when she touched her eye.

Jeremie continued banging on the window again.

"Jeremie, It's me, Aelita. Everything is all right. I'm here for you. You're going to be okay."

Jeremie looked in her direction, and his eyes seemed to focus. He then shook his head.

"Aelita?" he said, looking at her.

She stepped forward and hugged Jeremie. After a little bit, he hugged back.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Jeremie."

"No need to worry, Aelita."

Aelita stepped back. Jeremie was smiling. However, the smile was short-lived. He had a look of fear in his eye.

Jeremie looked at Aelita. There was a dark blue mark around Aelita's eye.

"Oh, no," said Jeremie. He was crying now.

"What's wrong?" asked Aelita.

Jeremie wanted to kill himself. He had hurt Aelita while he was sleeping! He turned around and took off out the door.

"Jeremie! Wait!"

Jeremie didn't look back. He had to get away. He needed to go someplace where he could harm her no further. Tears were now raining from his eyes. He ran and ran and ran. He found the manhole that led to the factory, opened it and climbed down. He took one of the scooters leaned up against the wall. The whole thing went by fast. Jeremie didn't stop until he made it to the factory. He took the elevator down to the core. He laid down against the wall and cried himself to sleep.

To Be Continued…


	7. Transfer Jeremie

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation. If anybody is wondering about the night terror thing, I got it from Boston Legal. I might use more story points from Boston Legal.

Note: I don't know if I'm spelling Jeremie's name right. I've seen it spelled, "Jeremie," and "Jeremy," so just bear with me. If anyone thinks I should change the spelling, send me a review. Yolande is pronounced, "Yo-lawn-duh." And if you're going to read this story, PLEASE at least have the decency to leave a review!

Chapter Seven

"Transfer Jeremie"

Aelita got dressed, and came running up to Yumi's room. She knocked on the door three times before Yumi came and answered it.

"What is it?" she asked. Then her eyes opened wider. "What happened to you?!" she asked, pointing at Aelita's eye.

"I'll tell you later! Jeremie's had another one, and he took off running to the factory!"

"We've got to warn the others!" said Yumi.

They headed downstairs to the boys' dorm and knocked on Ulrich and Odd's door. After a few knocks, Odd came out and rubbed his eyes.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Jeremie took off running to the factory!" said Aelita.

"WHAT!?" said a voice inside the room. "Come on, let's go!"

Ulrich came out of the bedroom and slipped his camo jacket on. He led the way to the factory.

Jeremie took the ladder back up to the computer room and sat down in the chair. He put his head in his hands. He had punched Aelita when he was having his night terror. He slapped himself on the head. But, somehow, that didn't seem to be enough. He then got up from the chair and started banging his head against the wall.

"I- AM- THE- WORLD'S- BIGGEST- JERK!!!" he exclaimed, slamming his head against the wall with each word. He then collapsed to the floor, leaned his head against the wall and began crying.

"So, Aelita, what happened to your eye?" asked Odd as they skated through the sewer.

Aelita looked down, and then looked up at them.

"Jeremie had another night terror. He began banging on his window, and when I tried to console him, he turned around and hit me."

"That must be why he ran off," said Ulrich. "I know I would."

"When he saw my face, he started crying," said Aelita.

"Well, at least we know he didn't mean it," said Yumi. "Does it hurt at all?"

"A little bit," replied Aelita.

Jeremie lied down on the floor next to the wall and lay in the fetal position. He remembered a situation somewhat like this when he was a child.

"Let me see your homework, shrimp!" said a figure towering over him.

"No, I worked really hard on this!" he replied.

"I said, give it here!" said the figure, snatching a piece of paper away from Jeremie.

"No! Give it back!" he said. He then punched the figure in the stomach.

The figure groaned as Jeremie's fist made contact.

"You're gonna pay for that, four-eyed small fry!" he said.

The figure shoved its large hand against Jeremie's chest, pinning him to the wall. The figure then moved his fist backwards.

"No! Stop! Please!" yelled Jeremie.

The figure moved his fist forward swiftly, making contact with Jeremie's stomach. The figure released his grip, and left Jeremie lying against the wall, and Jeremie broke down crying.

They stopped at the bottom of the other manhole and climbed up. They ran to the entrance and slid down the ropes. Aelita punched in the code and the elevator doors closed. They began to descend to the computer room. They found Jeremie lying against the wall opposite the elevator.

"Jeremie!" yelled Aelita.

Jeremie got up from the wall and began moving backwards. He didn't want to run the risk of hurting Aelita again.

"Jeremie, wait."

Jeremie stopped where he was and let Aelita come closer.

"Aelita-" he began. "Aelita, I'm so sorry!" said Jeremie.

Aelita put a finger to his lips to shut him up.

"It's all right, Jeremie," she answered. "I know that you couldn't control yourself, and that if you were awake, you wouldn't have hurt me."

"But, I still did it! I'm surprised that you guys didn't just leave me here," replied Jeremie.

"Come on, Einstein. You know us better than that," said Odd.

"I would never abandon you because of something that happened on accident," said Aelita. She hugged him once again.

"I really am sorry, Aelita."

Aelita felt her shoulder with one of her hands. It was all wet. It was soaked from a combination of Jeremie's sweat and his tears.

After a while, everybody calmed down.

"So, then, you forgive me, Aelita?" asked Jeremie.

"Of course I do, Jeremie."

He smiled. His princess had just said that she wasn't mad at him.

"You ready to come back to Kadic now?" asked Aelita.

"Well of-"

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"

"What the?" said Jeremie.

He ran over to the supercomputer and looked at the screen. It showed a glowing red structure.

"A tower's been activated on Lyoko!" he said.

"What's XANA up to this time?" asked Odd.

"I don't know, but I'm not going to wait and find out. Get downstairs! Now!" commanded Jeremie. He began typing code after code on the computer.

"I'm setting up the virtualization program," said Jeremie.

They got back into the elevator, and pushed the button that brought them to the scanner room. They heard Jeremie's voice over the intercom.

"The activated tower is in the Desert Region. You guys should appear just a few yards away."

Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd walked into their respective scanners, and would soon be followed by Aelita. The cabin doors closed around them.

"Transfer Ulrich. Transfer Yumi. Transfer Odd."

The scanners began to hum.

"Scanner Ulrich. Scanner Yumi. Scanner Odd."

They began to float toward the top of the scanners.

"Virtualization."

They disappeared, and they reappeared just to the right of the tower.

"Alright, Jeremie, we're here," said Ulrich.

"Hang on, Aelita will be right with you."

"Ready to go, Aelita?" asked Jeremie over the intercom.

"I'm ready."

"Transfer Aelita."

The doors closed around her and the scanner began to hum.

"Scanner Aelita."

She floated to the top of the scanner.

"Virtualization."

Aelita disappeared and then reappeared next to the others.

"I made it, Jeremie."

"Good, the activated tower should only be a few meters from your position. Wait a minute. I'm picking up four Flying Mantas around the top of the tower. Be careful."

Sure enough, four Flying Mantas appeared over their heads and began dropping mine after mine over the group's heads.

"Look out, you guys!" said Jeremie.

The group got out of the way of the mines, and one of the Mantas shot a laser blast from its mouth that detonated all of them.

"Are you guys alright?" asked Jeremie.

"Yeah, we're fine, Jeremie," said Aelita.

Jeremie let out a sigh of relief, but his relief was short-lived, as he spotted something familiar on the scan.

"Oh, no!" said Jeremie.

"What is it, Jeremie?" asked Odd.

"It's William!" answered Jeremie.

Odd and the others looked over their shoulders, and saw William. Only this time, instead of his Manta, he was riding on the back of the Scyphozoa! William jumped off of his mount, and went to face Ulrich. He picked up his cleaver, and began slashing at Ulrich. Ulrich blocked nearly all of them, until…

"Ow!" William hit Ulrich on the shoulder.

"Ulrich, be careful! You just lost twenty life points!" said Jeremie.

William took another swing at Ulrich, missing, and Ulrich managed to knick William in the torso.

Meanwhile, Aelita was trying to make her way to the tower, while being closely chased by the Scyphozoa.

"Jeremie! It's getting closer!" yelled Aelita.

Jeremie sat there with a worried expression on his face.

"Run, Aelita!"

Aelita ran until she reached the tower, but was picked up by the Scyphozoa.

"Jeremie!" yelled Aelita.

"Oh, no!" said Jeremie. Aelita was going to be destroyed. He didn't want to let that happen, but there was nothing he could do. Ulrich was too busy fighting William, Yumi and Odd were occupied with the Mantas, and Aelita was hanging upside down from one of the Scyphozoa's tentacles.

Suddenly, Jeremie had a thought.

"Hold on, guys, someone's coming to help you!"

"What's he talking about?" asked Ulrich. "Who else could he be sending?"

"I don't know," said Odd.

"Jeremie! What are you talking about?" asked Ulrich.

There was no answer.

"Jeremie!" yelled Ulrich.

Still no answer.

"Why won't he answer?" asked Yumi.

"Einstein, this is no time for games!" yelled Odd.

His voice still went unheard.

"Jeremie! We need your help!" yelled Aelita.

The Scyphozoa was wrapping its tentacles around her.

"Jeremie, where are you?!" asked Aelita.

Just then, something hit the tentacles. They fell off of the Scyphozoa, and Aelita fell to the ground.

"Right here," said Jeremie's voice, only this time, it didn't come from the sky, and it didn't sound like it was coming from a telephone. They all looked around, and saw a blond-haired being.

"Jeremie?" asked Ulrich.

Jeremie was standing on one of the plateaus, looking down at them. His hair was the same, but his circular glasses had changed, they looked smaller, and they now looked like a targeting visor. He had a long-sleeved light blue shirt with a dark blue vest over the top. He was also wearing a pair of pants that looked like they could be camouflage. He was holding two handguns, holding them sideways instead of straight up. He was also wearing a Billy the Kid grin.

"Miss me?" asked Jeremie.

The Scyphozoa was retreating, but Jeremie jumped down into the ravine and began shooting at its eye.

After about six shots, Jeremie broke the case protecting the eye, and made one more shot.

"Impact," he said, trying out Ulrich's phrase.

The Scyphozoa crumpled and hit the ground. It exploded and blew its legs all over the place.

The others looked at him in awe. They had been trying to defeat the Scyphozoa ever since they found out that it existed, and yet, Jeremie defeated it so easily.

Aelita looked at Jeremie. _He's cute_, she thought.

"You guys said he looked ridiculous on Lyoko!" yelled Aelita to Ulrich and Odd.

"He looks different than he did last time!" said Odd.

Jeremie then looked in Yumi and Odd's direction. He saw that they were still having a hard time trying to get rid of their flying foes. He spun the cylinders on both of his pistols, and fired all of the bullets in the air at a forty-five degree angle.

"Hail of Bullets!" he yelled.

The bullets then rained back down on the Mantas and destroyed them all. After that, he turned his attention to William, who made a hand gesture, and made a battalion of Kankrelats appear. Jeremie clicked a button on his glasses-now-targeting visor, and put William in his sights.

"Target acquired," he announced.

He began firing bullet after bullet at William while dodging shots from the Kankrelats.

"You guys need to get Aelita to the tower!" said Jeremie.

"How? William and the Kankrelats are blocking the way!" said Ulrich.

"Hold on." He pushed another button on his targeting visor.

"Computer, program vehicles. Overboard, Overwing, Overbike. Run program."

With that, sure enough, the three vehicles appeared on the surface of Lyoko.

"Now, get going!" yelled Jeremie.

They did as they were told, except for Odd, who stayed behind to help Jeremie with the Kankrelats. Aelita hopped on the Overboard and rode it to the tower.

William was so busy keeping Odd at bay after all the Kankrelats had been destroyed, that he didn't notice Jeremie come up behind him. He suddenly felt something cold touch his temple. He shifted his eyes over in its direction.

"Catch this," said Jeremie.

He fired. William vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Whoa, nice one, Einstein," said Odd.

"Thanks," replied Jeremie. "We'd better catch up with the others."

"You're right."

With that, they began running in the direction of the tower, and found Ulrich and Yumi standing just outside.

"Did she make it in?" asked Jeremie.

"Yep, it's just been deactivated," answered Ulrich.

"All right. Computer, return to the past, now," said Jeremie.

A white sphere emerged from the computer engulfing the entire area in an eerie white light.

To Be Continued…


	8. Lullaby

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation. If anybody is wondering about the night terror thing, I got it from Boston Legal. I might use more story points from Boston Legal.

Note: I don't know if I'm spelling Jeremie's name right. I've seen it spelled, "Jeremie," and "Jeremy," so just bear with me. If anyone thinks I should change the spelling, send me a review. Yolande is pronounced, "Yo-lawn-duh." And if you're going to read this story, PLEASE at least have the decency to leave a review!

Chapter Eight

"Lullaby"

Jeremie was sitting with Aelita in his room. Aelita was in her bed reading "The Power of Positive Thinking" by Norman Vincent Peale. She looked up from her book, turned to the right and saw Jeremie sitting in his bed reading his own book.

"Looks like it worked," said Jeremie.

"It seems so," said Aelita. She put her book down, walked over to Jeremie, and put her arms around him.

"What's up?" asked Jeremie.

"I'm just so glad you're all right," said Aelita.

Jeremie stayed still for a moment, and then wrapped his arms around Aelita, embracing her in a warm, loving hug.

They were interrupted by two knocks on their door.

"Who is it?" asked Jeremie.

"It's Odd," answered a voice.

"What's odd?" asked Jeremie.

"Me," answered the voice.

"You? What makes you say that?" asked Jeremie, gaining a giggle from Aelita.

"Would you just let me in already?!" asked the voice impatiently.

"Okay, fine, come on in," said Jeremie with a smile.

Odd opened the door, and came in followed by Ulrich and Yumi. When they came in, the formed a line in front of the door and folded their arms.

"What?" asked Jeremie. He sat there with a puzzled look.

Odd piped up.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, Einstein," he said, putting on the same play-scowl that the others had.

"What about?" asked Jeremie.

"How did you learn to fight like that on Lyoko, Jeremie?" asked Ulrich.

Jeremie suddenly knew what they were talking about.

"Oh, yeah. About that…"

Fade out

Jeremie was standing in front of a target about five hundred yards away. He was holding a pistol in his right hand, and he had a pair of Silencios over his ears. He looked down at the pistol, then at the target.

"You all right, Jeremie?" asked a voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine, dad," answered Jeremie.

"Is the safety on?" asked his dad.

"Yep," answered the boy.

"Now remember: Keep it on safety until you're ready to shoot, aim, click the safety off, and then squeeze the trigger. Don't pull it."

"You got it," said Jeremie.

He looked at the target one more time. He aimed. Suddenly, the target seemed to change shape. It became wider, taller, and it had clothes on. It was the bully that had stolen his homework.

"Hey, hey, hey, Jeremie! Jeremie, come on!" he said. "Can't we work something out?"

Jeremie took aim at the target, clicked off the safety, and squeezed.

PFFFFFFFFFWWWWWOOOW!

The bullet landed on the bull's-eye. He aimed, and shot again, and again, and again, even after the clip was empty, he kept squeezing the trigger. He wanted to make that kid pay.

"Very good, son!" said his dad. "You hit the target like you've been shooting for years!"

"Well, I did okay, I guess," said Jeremie.

"Okay!?" said his incredulous father. "You hit the bull's-eye every time! Shooting skills don't get much better than that!"

The next moment, Jeremie was standing in front of a seven-candle candlestick. All of the candles were lit.

There were people all around him. He picked up the six-shooter in his hand, and shot off four of the candles.

"Nice job, Jeremie," said a man observing him. "But how are you going to get the rest of them? There are three candles left and only two bullets."

Jeremie shot at the candle on the end, turning the whole candlestick ninety degrees. He then shot again, taking out the remaining two candles.

Everyone around him applauded. Jeremie put the western-style six-shooter on a table next to him.

"So, that's how you learned to shoot?" asked Yumi.

"Yeah. I was pretty good at it," said Jeremie.

"Well, anybody could see that," said Yumi.

The others looked at each other, and then back at Jeremie.

"So, why didn't you come help us on Lyoko sooner?" asked Ulrich.

"Oh, come on, Ulrich! I was dead scared of fighting any monsters, add to that I thought I'd be nothing short of useless on Lyoko," responded Jeremie.

"Useless?" asked Odd. "What are you talking about? I mean, you may not be much of a threat in the real world, but on Lyoko, you're Billy the Kid!"

"Or the _Sundance_ Kid," said Yumi.

"Well, I suppose you have a point there," said Jeremie, looking down at the floor.

"Butch Cassidy," said Odd.

"Yeah," said Jeremie.

"Jesse James," said Odd.

"Alright, I get it!" said Jeremie.

"And you destroyed the Scyphozoa," added Ulrich.

"And you got rid of William before Ulrich could," said Odd, earning a death-glare from Ulrich.

"I know what you guys are doing," said Jeremie.

They all looked at each other.

"And I'm not going back to Lyoko. Forget it."

"Oh, come on, Jeremie!" said Ulrich.

"No," said Jeremie.

"Jeremie!" said Odd.

"Nein," said Jeremie.

"But, Jeremie," said Yumi.

"Niet," said Jeremie.

"Einstein!" said Odd.

"Non," said Jeremie.

"Jeremie!!" said Ulrich.

"Nunka!" said Jeremie.

"Jeremie," said, not Ulrich, not Yumi, not Odd, but _Aelita_.

Jeremie stiffened up at the sound of his name.

"Will you please come to Lyoko with us again?"

Jeremie looked into her deep green eyes. He loved looking into those beautiful emeralds that were her eyes. His mouth draped open.

"Well, I, uh…"

Aelita came over to him, and sat down in his lap.

"Please?" she asked, kissing him on the cheek.

"For me?" she said, fake-pouting.

Jeremie looked at her. She knew that he knew that he couldn't say no to her. He closed his eyes and conceded.

"Alright, Aelita," said Jeremie. "I'll go back to Lyoko with you guys."

Aelita smiled, and then leaned in and kissed him on the lips.

"Just this once. That's it."

"You're the best, Jeremie!" said Aelita.

They spent the next hour or so talking in Jeremie's room.

"Well, I think we had better turn in," said Yumi. "and I had better head for home."

"Good night, Yumi," said Ulrich.

"Good night, everybody," said Jeremie.

"Good night, Einstein," said Odd.

Everybody went back to their rooms, and Aelita and Jeremie went back to their respective beds. Jeremie picked his book back up, and continued reading. Aelita looked over at him, and then picked her book back up. She finished reading Mr. Peale's book in about four minutes, and she turned over and looked at Jeremie. She lied down to go to sleep when Jeremie spoke up.

"Hey, Aelita?" asked Jeremie.

"Yes?"

"You said, in the elevator, when we were headed back to Kadic yesterday- pardon- two days ago, that you loved me the way that I love you."

"What of it?" asked Aelita.

"I was just wondering, did you mean that?"

Aelita smiled at this.

"Of course I did."

Jeremie got up from his bed an made his way over to Aelita. He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her bed.

"What is it, Jeremie?" she asked.

Jeremie slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her into him. He put his hands together on her back.

"I'm glad you did," said Jeremie.

She closed her eyes, and smiled. Jeremie leaned forward, opened his mouth, waited for Aelita to open hers, closed his eyes, and gave her a long, loving kiss. When the need for air was too much for them, they parted.

"I love you, Aelita," said Jeremie. "Like a fat man loves cake."

Aelita chuckled at this. It wasn't like Jeremie to make a joke.

"I love you, too, Jeremie," she said. "_More_ than a fat man loves cake."

With that, they leaned in for another kiss. This one lasted longer than the first. After about a half hour, they parted.

"Well, I think we'd better head to bed, Princess."

"Yeah," said Aelita. She looked down at the floor.

Jeremie put up his book, and made his bed. He looked behind him, and saw that Aelita looking at the floor where he was standing a moment ago. She had a dispirited look on her face.

"What's wrong, Aelita?"

"Jeremie…" she began, looking at him, but then looking back at the floor.

"What is it, Princess?" he asked. He came over to her, put his hand on her chin, and lifted her face up to see him.

"I…"

She looked at Jeremie. She loved those sapphire blue eyes of his.

"I was wondering if you wouldn't mind… me… sleeping… with you… tonight?" asked Aelita.

Jeremie smiled.

"Aelita, you don't even have to ask for that."

With that, he pulled the covers partway open, and skooched over for her to lay next to him.

Aelita smiled, and walked over to the bed. She sat on the bed, and tucked her legs underneath the covers. Jeremie pulled the covers over her. Aelita thought that it was sweet how Jeremie paid close attention to her and gave her enough room. Jeremie put his hand around Aelita's waist, and pulled her closer to him. He grabbed the covers, and pulled them over her so that she was perfectly warm.

"Jeremie. You're so sweet," said Aelita with a smile.

"It's nothing, Princess, really," responded Jeremie.

Aelita put her chest to Jeremie's side, laid her head on his chest, and spoke.

"Oh, but it's everything, Jeremie. Ever since you got me out of Lyoko, you've done everything you could to be helpful to me, and you continue to do so. But, I don't know how I can ever repay you for it."

"You don't have to, Aelita. Just spending time with you is enough."

They laid there for about a half hour.

"Jeremie?" asked Aelita.

"Hmm?"

"How would you feel about taking a training session on Lyoko with me tomorrow?" asked Aelita.

Jeremie looked into the emeralds that were her eyes once again, and answered.

"Sure, why not?"

Aelita rolled on top of him, and surprised him.

"Whoa-" started Jeremie, but he was cut off by Aelita's soft lips.

"Thank you, Jeremie," said Aelita.

They lay there for another hour, enjoying the warmth of the other's body.

"Aelita? Are you still awake?" asked Jeremie.

"Yes, Jeremie, what is it?" answered Aelita.

"Would you mind if I sang you a…" he hesitated. "Oh, never mind."

"What? Sang me a what?" asked Aelita gently.

"Nothing. You probably wouldn't go for it."

"What is it, Jeremie? You can tell me. I won't laugh."

Jeremie closed his eyes.

"Would you mind if I sang you a lullaby?" asked Jeremie.

Aelita was confused.

"What's a lullaby?" asked Aelita.

Jeremie remembered that she had no idea what a lullaby was.

"It's basically just a song used to put people to sleep. Mothers often do that with their babies."

Aelita smiled at this.

"Why not? See what you can do," said Aelita.

"All right, but just so you know, I'm not much of a singer," said Jeremie.

"That's all right, Jeremie," said Aelita.

Jeremie began singing the song, but contrary to what he believed, he _was_ much of a singer!

(Author's note: It would probably be better if you listened to the song while you read this, so look up, "It's My Life (slow)" on YouTube)

"It's My life"

Bon Jovi

This Left Feels Right [2003

Jon Bon Jovi, Max Martin, Richie Sambora

Island Records

This ain't a song for the broken-hearted

No silent prayer for the faith-departed

I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd

You're gonna hear my voice when I shout it out loud

Chorus:

It's my life

It's now or never

I ain't gonna live forever

I just wanna live while I'm alive

It's my life

My heart is like an open highway

Like Frankie said, "I did it my way"

I just wanna live while I'm alive

It's my life

"You have a beautiful voice, Jeremie," said Aelita.

"Well, I wouldn't go as far as beautiful," said Jeremie.

Aelita knew he was being modest, because to her, he sounded exactly like Jon Bon Jovi. He nailed every single note like it was on the record.

This is for the ones who stood their ground

For Tommy and Gina who never backed down

Tomorrow's gettin' harder make no mistake

Luck ain't even lucky, gotta make your own breaks

(Repeat Chorus)

You better stand tall when they're calling you out

Don't bend, don't break, baby don't back down

(Repeat Chorus)

(Repeat Chorus)

End song.

Jeremie looked down at the pink-haired angel lying beside him. She was sound asleep. She must have really liked it. She was smiling.

Jeremie bent down, and gave her a kiss on the lips.

"Buenas Noches, mi princesa hermosa."

To Be Continued…

What do you think?

For anyone who is wondering, Jeremie said, "Good night, my beautiful princess."

Read and review!


	9. The Scan

"Code: Insomnia"

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation. If anybody is wondering about the night terror thing, I got it from Boston Legal. I might use more story points from Boston Legal.

Note: I don't know if I'm spelling Jeremie's name right. I've seen it spelled, "Jeremie," and "Jeremy," so just bear with me. If anyone thinks I should change the spelling, send me a review. Yolande is pronounced, "Yo-lawn-duh." And if you're going to read this story, PLEASE at least have the decency to leave a review!

Chapter Nine

"The Scan"

The next morning, Aelita woke up to find Jeremie pacing back and forth and in his regular day clothes.

"What's wrong, Jeremie?"

Jeremie looked over at her and smiled.

"Ah. Good morning, Princess. Did you sleep well?"

Aelita smiled.

"Yes. Thanks for the lullaby. It helped a lot. I didn't have a nightmare this time, but it was a bit of a disappointment when I didn't find you next to me."

Jeremie looked ashamed.

"I'm sorry, Aelita."

"It's all right, Jeremie."

She got up from the bed and walked over to him. She then stood on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the lips. After a moment, Jeremie returned it. Aelita broke the kiss when the door opened.

"Hey, lovers," said Odd. He came in the door followed by Yumi and Ulrich.

"Hey, Odd," said Jeremie, rolling his eyes.

"What? Me and the others just thought we'd stop in."

"Did you guys sleep well?" asked Yumi.

"Not one night terror," said Jeremie.

"Good," said Ulrich.

"Except that when I woke up this morning, I saw Jeremie pacing back and forth," said Aelita.

"Traitor," muttered Jeremie.

Aelita leaned her head on his shoulder, and then he smiled.

"What were you pacing back and forth for, Jeremie?" asked Yumi.

"I scheduled a MRI after you told me to go see the nurse about my night terrors. I'm a little nervous about it."

Aelita put her arms around him.

"Aelita?" asked Jeremie.

"Hmm?"

"I was wondering if maybe you and the others could come with us. Maybe you guys could have an MRI done, too. I'll even pay for it."

The others looked at him.

"You're that nervous about it?" asked Ulrich.

"Well, I figured that maybe if I had my friends go through the same thing…" began Jeremie.

The others looked at him expectantly.

"N-never mind. It was a stupid idea, anyway," he said. He went to walk out the door, but was stopped by Aelita speaking up.

"Jeremie?"

He turned around.

"Yes, Aelita?"

"Make an appointment. We'll get tested with you," said Aelita.

Jeremie looked a little happier.

"Really?"

She nodded.

"Are you sure?"

"We're certain, Jeremie," said Yumi. "If it will make you feel better, we'll do it."

Jeremie smiled.

"Thanks, guys," he said.

He walked over to each of them and gave them a hug, and gave Aelita a kiss.

"It's this afternoon. I'll have him pencil you guys in after me."

The others nodded, and Ulrich, Odd and Yumi left the room. Jeremie waited for Aelita to get dressed before they went down to breakfast together.

"So, what time will it be?" asked Aelita.

"Four o'clock this afternoon."

"How will we get there?" asked Aelita.

"I made sure to call the nearest one. It's two blocks away, so we can just walk there."

Aelita smiled.

"You think of everything, don't you, handsome?" she asked.

Jeremie stopped walking.

"Please, don't call me that," he said.

Aelita stopped as well.

"Why not?"

"You're the one of the two of us who's good looking. Not me." He looked sad as he said this.

Aelita walked up to him, and put her arms around him.

"Well, you know what? I think you're good looking, Jeremie. And that's all that matters."

Jeremie looked down at her and saw in her eyes that she meant what she said.

"Now, come on. Time for you to get a decent breakfast for once," she said, leading him to the cafeteria.

They entered the cafeteria and went directly to the lunch line.

"You know, Aelita, working on the computer wasn't the only thing that kept me from eating," said Jeremie.

She looked at him with confusion on her face.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, half the time, the table that we eat off of tastes better than the food."

Aelita chuckled.

"Alright, smart aleck, get something to eat and let's sit down."

Aelita saw that Jeremie still seemed sad.

"You still need proof that you're cute? Come here," she said.

He sat his tray on the table in front of Yumi and Odd. Aelita led him out of the cafeteria and pushed him up against the wall. She then stood on her tiptoes and began fiercely kissing him. She stopped for a minute to talk.

"Would I do this to anyone I didn't find attractive?"

Jeremie had an answer for that, but decided to just agree with her and enjoy the moment. Aelita stopped for a moment and hugged him.

"I love you, Jeremie, and I always will. Don't forget that, and don't doubt it. I love you with all my heart."

Jeremie knew that Aelita wasn't ever going to stop.

"I love you, too, Aelita."

Aelita smiled.

"I'd like to take this opportunity to promise you something, Aelita."

"What's that, Jer?"

"I promise that I will never force you into anything that you don't want. I will never abandon you. And the only thing that I will ever ask of you is that you continue to love me the way I love you."

That was all Aelita needed. She then pushed Jeremie in through a different door, and knocked him to the floor. She shut the door and pounced on top of him. They started kissing again.

"Odd will probably eat my food by the time we get back," said Jeremie. "Not that I'm complaining. I'm getting full already."

"Oh, shut up," said Aelita.

Jeremie chuckled.

After about fifteen minutes, they re-entered the cafeteria. Odd had indeed eaten all of Jeremie's food.

"Where have you guys been?" asked Ulrich.

"Nowhere," said Jeremie.

"Out," said Aelita.

They said their answers simultaneously.

"Jeremie, what's that on your cheek?" asked Yumi.

"What?" asked Jeremie.

Jeremie had a pair of pink lip marks on his left cheek. Aelita gave him a napkin, and he wiped it off.

"So, what's the plan for this afternoon?" asked Ulrich.

"We'll be going to the clinic two blocks away. I made sure to call the closest clinic so that we can just walk there."

"Well, we got five hours. What do you want to do?" asked Odd.

"I was thinking, maybe we could go train on Lyoko," said Jeremie.

"Good idea," said Aelita.

They then rushed out the door and to the factory. Jeremie led the way, because he wanted to get it over with.

"What's your hurry, Jeremie?" he heard Aelita yell. He looked behind him to see that his friends were far, far behind him. He stopped and let them catch up before advancing any farther.

"Jeez, Jeremie. I haven't seen you go that fast since Xana sent that giant Teddy Bear after us," said Odd.

"Sorry. Got a little carried away."

"It's all right, Jer," said Yumi.

Jeremie let everyone else go up the ladder first when they reached the manhole. As he came up the hole, he made an attempt at conversation.

"Did you guys know that the Teddy Bear got its name from an American President?" he asked.

"Really?" asked Odd. "Which one?"

"Theodore Roosevelt. He was about to shoot at a bear cub, but decided not to. As far as I know, that was the reason for their naming it after him."

"He was their twenty-seventh president, right?" asked Ulrich.

"Twenty-sixth," said Jeremie.

They went into the elevator, and Jeremie pressed the down button. He went into the terminal room, brought up all their profile cards, and launched a timed virtualization.

"You guys go first, me and Aelita will go after," said Jeremie.

The others nodded.

Before long, the gang was on Lyoko, testing out Jeremie's new training program. Jeremie was only on Lyoko twice in his entire life, and yet, somehow, he was able to destroy exactly fifteen Hornets, two Krabes, one Megatank, and five Kankrelats.

"Nice job, Jeremie," said Aelita.

"You nailed 'em!" said Odd.

"You got to them before we did!" said Ulrich.

"I try," said Jeremie.

"With you on Lyoko, Xana won't stand a chance!" said Yumi.

"Yeah, well…" began Jeremie.

"What? You're not coming back?" asked Yumi.

"See, this is why I only agreed to one more Lyoko trip. I knew that you guys would try to get me to come more than that."

"Oh, come on, Jeremie! If you come with us, it will save us a lot of time, and a LOT of lives."

Jeremie thought of this, but eventually concluded that the others were right.

"All right, I will start coming to Lyoko with you guys, but ONLY in emergencies."

"Jeremie, they're trips to Lyoko. Every one of which involves Xana trying to destroy the world in some way. By definition, they're emergencies," said Ulrich.

"Whatever. I'll start coming to Lyoko, okay?" said Jeremie.

"Aye, cap'n!" said Odd, saluting.

"We'd better get back to Earth. Our MRI appointments are up pretty soon."

He pressed a button on his targeting visor.

"Materialization: Odd. Materialization: Ulrich. Materialization: Yumi."

They all appeared in the scanners.

"Are you guys in the computer room?"

"Yep, we've made it, Jeremie," said Ulrich.

"Your turn, Aelita," said Jeremie.

"Okay."

"Materialization: Aelita. Materialization: Jeremie."

They both appeared in their scanners, and walked out.

"That was a good session," said Aelita. "Same time next week?"

"Sure," replied Jeremie.

They made their way to the elevator, and closed it. Jeremie looked up at the ceiling as the elevator started to rise. Aelita just looked at the door.

"You know," said Jeremie. "I had a dream about this once."

"About what?" asked Aelita.

"About me and you… alone… in an elevator…" said Jeremie, cautiously.

"Really?" said Aelita. Suddenly, she pulled the red switch in the elevator.

"BBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNGGG!" went the alarm bell.

"What are you doing?" asked Jeremie.

"I'm making the dream come true," said Aelita, simply.

"Aelita, start the elevator."

"_You _start it," she said.

She took off her jacket, and dropped it on the floor of the elevator.

Jeremie chuckled nervously.

"Ahahahahahaha… you dropped your jacket," he said, looking to the side and frowning.

"Don't think that we're gonna take it _that _far," said Aelita. "Just the two of us… _alone_," she said. She smiled at Jeremie and walked up to him.

"There's a scientific term for this," said Jeremie. He looked up, trying to think of it. "Oh, yes, it's, 'Oooooh, my goooood'," he said, finally.

"Why are you so nervous?" asked Aelita, as she began stroking his face.

"Well, as you can easily tell, I haven't read up on the boyfriend/girlfriend regulations. We are boyfriend and girlfriend, right?"

"Well, yes. But, you don't have to worry, Jer. I haven't exactly read up on them myself. I'm actually wondering if I should be taking it this far."

"You want to… continue?" asked Jeremie.

"Of course," said Aelita.

Jeremie leaned in and kissed Aelita very gently on the lips. He felt her arms. She was wearing a pink tank top. Her skin felt so smooth… so soft… He rubbed his hands up and down her back. He closed his eyes, and kissed Aelita with all the passion he could muster up. Aelita seemed to be enjoying this. She took off Jeremie's glasses and dropped them on the floor. Jeremie heard a lens pop out, but, he was too busy to care. Aelita began feeling Jeremie's face with her hands. They both began making out. They kissed for about a half hour. When they were done, Jeremie and Aelita sat against the wall of the elevator. Jeremie popped the missing lens back into his glasses.

After a while, they finally came out of the elevator.

Ulrich, Yumi and Odd woke up to the sound of the elevator doors opening.

"What the?" began Odd. He looked at his cell phone. "What the heck? It took you two hours to get off Lyoko?"

"Well, not exactly," said Jeremie.

"What's that smell?" asked Odd, sniffing. "It smells like sweat, perfume, cologne and flowers," he said.

"Yep," said Jeremie.

"So, now what? Are we headed to the clinic?" asked Ulrich.

"Yeah, why not?" asked Jeremie.

They made their way back to Kadic Academy through the manholes, and proceeded to the clinic two blocks away.

Jeremie led the way to the clinic, since he was the one who made the appointment. He made his way to the front desk.

"May I help you, sir?" asked the woman at the counter.

"Yes. I made an appointment for four o'clock for all of us?" said Jeremie.

"You're Mr. Belpois?" asked the woman.

"The same," said Jeremie.

She stood up.

"Follow me, please."

She led them to a cleaning room where they were asked to put on patient's garments. After they were finished, they all stepped into another room where a doctor greeted them.

"Hello, Jeremie," he said.

"Hello," said Jeremie.

"My name is Dr. Jameson," said the doctor.

"M.D., or Ph.D.?" asked Ulrich.

"Both," said Dr. Jameson. "I'm going to be the one taking your MRIs today."

"Okay," said Jeremie.

"Who's going first?" asked the doctor.

"I'll go first. They can go after me."

"Follow me," said Dr. Jameson.

Jeremie and the others went with him into the room where the MRI was installed.

"If you'll lay down, please," said the doctor, as a long platform slid out of the machine. Jeremie laid down on the platform, and let the doctor prepare him.

"Now, remember to stay perfectly still," said the doctor.

Five chairs had been laid out, one for each patient. One was empty, and Jeremie's friends occupied the rest.

"All right. You should hear a clunking sound when we do this. This is normal."

The doctor slid a cage-like plastic head restraint over Jeremie's head.

"Why didn't I make Odd do this first?" asked Jeremie.

"We're right here, Jeremie," said Aelita.

"Ready?" asked the doctor.

"Go ahead," said Jeremie.

"Okay."

The platform slid back into the machine.

"Are you alright, Jeremie?" asked Aelita.

"Fine," whimpered Jeremie.

"Now, remain perfectly still," said the doctor.

The gang heard a humming and whirring as the machine turned on.

Jeremie rubbed his stomach with his hands.

"Maybe I should've removed my-"

His left hand rose up off his stomach and stuck to the outside of the MRI.

"Watch."

His right hand followed suit.

"Ring."

The gang heard something else stick to the inside of the machine.

"And glasses."

The gang dodged out of the way as Jeremie's chair flew off the floor and stuck to the MRI, narrowly missing his hands.

"I'm okay!" whimpered Jeremie.

"Would you like to start over?" asked Dr. Jameson through the other side of the glass window.

"I'm fine," said Jeremie.

After everyone had their MRIs taken, they followed Dr. Jameson to a room where they all viewed their results. Jeremie had the doctor go over his last.

"You told me that you were having night terrors. As your school nurse said, it could be stress-related."

"What else could cause it?" asked Jeremie.

"It's sometimes associated with schizophrenia or psychosis," said Dr. Jameson.

"And?" asked Jeremie.

"Well, you don't have either of those. And what's more, your brain looks perfectly normal."

He brought up an image of Jeremie's brain.

"I wouldn't know if it didn't," said Jeremie.

"Well, bottom line, you don't seem to have any symptoms of schizophrenia or any kind of psychosis," said Dr. Jameson.

"Well, we hardly know each other," said Jeremie.

"Well, more often than not, these night terrors are stress-related. How are things at home?"

"I live alone in an academy dorm room," replied Jeremie.

"I see," said Dr. Jameson, nodding. "What I would recommend is that you take a week off, maybe two. Get away from your school work. Just do something to take your mind off whatever stress you might have."

"I doubt that Mr. Delmas would let that fly," said Jeremie.

"I'll write you a prescription," said Dr. Jameson.

"And, I don't think I'd like being away from my friends."

"Well, back in earlier years," began Dr. Jameson, writing something out, "doctors who were dealing with patients used to write phony prescriptions for friends of the patients to keep them company. The hospital doesn't assign said phony prescriptions anymore. How the four of your friends managed to get one…"

He flung five prescription slips on the table.

"I'll never know," said Dr. Jameson.

"Wait," said Odd. "Are you suggesting that we should skip school and keep Jeremie company?"

"As a respected member of this hospital's board of directors, I could never advise you to do that," said Dr. Jameson.

Jeremie got the gist of what was said.

"Is there anything else you'd like me to help you with?" asked Dr. Jameson.

"No, that's good," said Jeremie. "Thanks, Doc."

The gang went back to the cleaning room to get dressed and head back to school. They just came out of the hospital when Odd spoke up.

"So, what do we do now?" asked Odd.

"We talk to the principal, and ask for a week or two off," said Jeremie.

To Be Continued…


	10. Alone with his Princess

"Code: Insomnia"

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation. If anybody is wondering about the night terror thing, I got it from Boston Legal. I might use more story points from Boston Legal.

Note: I don't know if I'm spelling Jeremie's name right. I've seen it spelled, "Jeremie," and "Jeremy," so just bear with me. If anyone thinks I should change the spelling, send me a review. Yolande is pronounced, "Yo-lawn-duh." And if you're going to read this story, PLEASE at least have the decency to leave a review!

Chapter Ten

"Alone with his Princess"

Jeremie and Aelita just got back to their room after their appointment. He had been given a copy of his brain scan results from Dr. Jameson. He perused it one more time before stuffing it into a folder, which he subsequently stuffed under his bed.

"I think we ought to go grab dinner," he said.

"Good. I could out-eat Odd right about now," said Aelita.

"Alright, let's go," said Jeremie. He then took Aelita by the hand and led her to the cafeteria.

Jeremie smiled at his princess. He loved her laugh and her smile.

"Okay, _Odd._ Let's go grab some dinner."

"Hey!" she replied.

They had finally made it to the cafeteria. Jeremie led Aelita up to the line. He grabbed as much food as he can, so as not to let Aelita chew him out. But, when Jeremie looked behind him, Aelita was gone. He walked up to the table to ask the gang if they had seen her. _Hope nothing happened to her, _he thought.

"Hey, guys," said Jeremie.

"Hey, Jer," called Yumi.

"Have you guys seen Aelita?" he asked.

"We thought she'd be with you," said Odd.

"Well, she was, but now I can't find her. Where is she-? OOOF!" he was cut off by something knocking him to the ground. The next second, Aelita was on top of him, and he was lying spread-eagle on the floor of the cafeteria.

"I'm okay," said Jeremie. _That _was a lie. His head hurt. Aelita was smiling as if she had won the Lottery. The whole gang looked at them with their mouths opened. Odd actually driveled some of his food out of his mouth. Aelita had just jump-tackled her boyfriend to the ground. She then bent down and kissed Jeremie squarely on the lips.

"I'm okay," he repeated. _That _was the truth. The only girl he ever truly liked just kissed him on the lips.

Odd came over to help Jeremie get up. He extended his hand to the latter.

"Grab my… what do you call… hand," said Jeremie. Odd did so, and when he did, he landed right on top of Jeremie's face.

"OOW! I'm okay," said Jeremie. His voice was muffled

He then shoved Odd off of him, and got up.

"Would you guys excuse me? I've got to go to the bathrooooOOOAH!" yelled Jeremie. He had just slipped on something, and was now coasting really fast into the food storage of the cafeteria.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" yelled Jeremie.

"OOOOOW!!" he yelled again. Jeremie began sailing through all the pots and pans, saying "ow" with each obstacle that he hit, and the gang flinching with each "ow."

"OW!" he hit a skillet. "OW!" he hit a strainer. "OW!" He hit a bucket.  
He finally came to a stop, hitting one of the refrigerators.

"OOW! OH! YOU'VE GOT TO BE-!" He was cut off by a skillet on top of the fridge hitting him on the head.  
BOOOOOOOOONG!!

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!"

Odd cracked up laughing.

"YOU JUST _KNOW_ THAT _THAT'S_ GONNA LEAVE _SOME_ KIND OF MARK!" he yelled.

Ulrich walloped him on the head.

"OW!"

Yolande was taking one last look at Jeremie.

"Nothing serious, just a few minor cuts, a few bruises, and a minor bump on your head. Just take it easy for a couple of hours, you'll be just fine."

"Thanks, Yolande," said Jeremie.

Aelita took Jeremie back to his room, and sat him down on the bed.

"Now, where does it hurt?" asked Aelita.

"Why are you asking me that?" asked Jeremie. "Yolande already examined me."  
"I know, I was gonna…" began Aelita. She looked over to one side, not sure whether to finish that sentence.

"Yes, Aelita?" asked Jeremie.  
"See, I saw this music video one time. 'She's Somebody's Hero.' I can't remember who sings it. It shows a woman kissing a child's wound, and the child smiles."

"Oh," said Jeremie. "Well…"

"Never mind," said Aelita. She felt stupid.

"No! It's okay, Aelita!"

"Really?"

"Yes," said Jeremie. He then pointed at his head. "Here's one."

Aelita bent forward, and kissed Jeremie's head. Surprisingly enough, it actually made him feel better.

"This hurts a little, too," said Jeremie, pointing at his lip.

Aelita leaned in and kissed Jeremie's lips. It wasn't long before Jeremie started kissing back. Jeremie stood up from his spot and began rubbing Aelita's back as they kissed. She moaned with a mixture of pleasure and surprise, and let his tongue enter her mouth. They continued with this for a while. Aelita reached up and pulled Jeremie's glasses off. Finally, when the need for air became too much for them, they separated.

"Are you feeling better, Jeremie?" asked Aelita.

"Well, I'm in my room, alone, with the best girl I could ever ask for. So, yeah," he answered with a smile. This earned him another kiss. Jeremie sat down on his bed and leaned his back against the wall. Aelita sat in his lap.

"Kiss me," said Aelita.

Jeremie did so. He kissed her on the lips as she had.

Aelita was really enjoying having Jeremie for a roommate. She hated seeing him sad or lonely, and now, she could actually make sure that he would never felt that way ever again. She leaned against her prince's chest for a while, when something came to her mind.

"Jeremie?" she asked.

"Yes, Aelita?" he responded.

"I was wondering…" she began.

"Yes?"

She hesitated, but then decided that she had already begun, so she might as well finish. She did so.

"A few days ago, when we found you at the factory, you said that the reason you had those… monstrous night terrors was because you had been bullied."

Jeremie looked alarmed at this. He had a flashback to the bully that tortured him when he was small. He shuddered as he remembered it. He remembered feeling the immense terror that gripped him at that age, the pain in his eye, and in his stomach. The moisture on his face as the rain fell on top of him. Aelita saw this, and tapped him on the shoulder, bringing him back to reality.

Jeremie looked at the pinkette sitting with him.

"What about it?" he asked, cautiously.

"Well, you don't have to if you don't want to, but…" she began. "People tell me that the best way to express pain is to talk about it."

Jeremie looked at the floor. He had put this behind him, and yet, why did it haunt him so? He looked at the princess sitting with him. She was looking at him with concern in those beautiful green eyes. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, let out a big sigh, and began telling her his tale.

"When I was… six, I began going to school. I was in the third grade. I had skipped two grades." He paused for a moment. "As you know, I had to wear glasses. Because I was, and still am, nearsighted. At first, my school days were fine. I went to school, did my work, and came home. I didn't have any friends. If anything, I had a larger academic life than I did a social life. But, I didn't have any problems. Until…"

He trailed off. He now looked very sad. Aelita didn't like seeing him sad.

"One day, I was coming home from school, and on the way, I met a trio of kids that were much taller than I was. At first, I didn't think they would be that much of a bother to me, so I just decided to walk by them. My mistake. One of them grabbed me by the backpack, and pulled me in front of him.

"'Hey, little kid. What are you doing on our side of town?' he asked.

"'Nothing, I'm just trying to get home,' I answered.

"'Well, if you want to get home, you'll have to pay the toll,' he said."

"Toll?" asked Aelita.

"There _was _no toll, Aelita. They just prided themselves in beating up and taking money from kids half their size."

"Couldn't they just be arrested?" asked Aelita.

"Who's gonna believe a six-year-old, besides, of course, my parents?" asked Jeremie.

Aelita was stumped. Jeremie had a good point.

"Anyway, the group had me in front of them. I didn't know what to do.

"'Hand over all your money,' the one who grabbed me said.

"'I don't have any. I spent it at the school,' I said. _That _was an even _bigger _mistake.

"'Well, I guess you're not going home anytime soon,' one of the other boys said. Then, they held me by my arms and legs, making sure I couldn't get away. I struggled against them, but, they were just too strong for me. They reached their destination. One of the kids got out a bundle of twine. Where they got it, I have no idea. Another one held my hands together, and his buddy tied them together. After they were finished with that, they tied me to a lamppost, and took off my glasses.

"'What's your name?' asked one of them. I presumed that that was the leader.

I didn't answer, and he pressed my head against the lamppost.

"'What's your name?' he asked again, more forcefully than before.

"'Jeremie,' I answered, weakly.

"'Jeremie…?' he asked.

"'Belpois,' I answered.

"'Well, then, Jeremie Belpois, have a nice day!' They laughed their heads off, and left me tied to that lamppost. I was there for five hours. My family started looking for me at around four o' clock. That was my usual get-home time. They finally found me around eight o' clock. I was really cold. Then, I finally saw a patrol car drive up to where I was, and they immediately jumped out and untied me."

"Yumi told me that it has to be twenty-four hours before you can officially call someone 'missing,'" said Aelita.

"Well, my dad has ties to the police. For which, I'm very thankful."

"Jeremie?"

"Yes, Aelita?"

"How exactly _does _your dad have ties to the police?"

"He was the Police Chief for seven years. You would think that holding that position, he would remind you of Ulrich's dad, but, surprisingly, it didn't change him. He is the nicest man one could meet. The police are always bugging him about being reinstated, but my dad refuses.

"Anyway, they untied me, and they asked me if I was Jeremie Belpois. I said that I was, but wished I wasn't, and they asked me to come with them to the station. My parents were waiting for me there. When I got there, my mom practically suffocated me, she was so worried. The police told them about how I was tied to a lamppost. My mom was infuriated, and wanted to hunt those kids down. The police asked me to give them a description of the kids, but I couldn't really remember. When my parents brought me back home, I remember my mom giving me cookies and milk. She always did that whenever I had a bad day, though, I never asked.

He smiled for a moment, remembering his mother's sweetness, and then reverted back to the frown he originally bore.

"Unfortunately, the ridicule didn't stop there. The next week, I met those exact same kids out on the playground. The bell had just rung for everyone to come inside. One of them pinned me against the wall, and demanded that I give him my homework. I told him that I wouldn't, and punched him in the stomach. He grabbed my neck, throttled it against the wall, and punched me in the stomach, too. After that, he pulled off my glasses, and… well, you can guess what happened."

Aelita couldn't bear to picture it, but couldn't help it. She saw in front of her eyes, a cute little boy with blond hair and glasses being beaten by a trio of ugly kids about her height. When the kids cleared the way, she saw the boy laying on the ground, crying.

"It took the teachers a while to realize that I had been beaten up. They took me to the nurse's office. Or, they must have. I don't really remember. The only thing I _could _remember was not being able to see out of my left eye, even with my glasses. It was really swollen. One would think that having gone through something like that, you would remember their faces perfectly, but… I didn't." Jeremie was crying, now. His voice hadn't broken, but tears were rolling down the sides of his face.

Aelita was crushed. She wanted to find those boys and beat them up good.

"It didn't stop there, either. I never told anyone about the abuse, because I didn't want to be known as a tattletale. As a result, I would wake up- well, not really- screaming in the middle of the night, and try to jump out of either a window or off the top of the house. I actually ended up in the ocean one time. It kept going until I was ten. The boys met me on my way home from school again, and demanded that I give them my glasses. I refused, and they knocked them off my face. One of them punched me in the stomach yet again, and, while I was holding on to my stomach, one of them kicked me…" he didn't finish his sentence, but pointed down, toward his lap.

Aelita began crying, too.

"One of them actually came up to me afterward and said, 'Wow, you do have some. We were beginning to wonder.' Then, after that, one of them stepped on my glasses. I laid there waiting for my… well, you know, to get better, picked up my glasses, and went home. I had to walk real slowly, because I couldn't see anything two feet in front of me. I finally made it home, but, my mom didn't notice anything other than the fact that I had come home late. I went up to my room, and closed the door. I punched the wall, I cried, I asked him (He pointed up toward the sky), 'why?', I stomped, I threw stuff, I kicked my pillow across the room. Finally after- well, I can't really tell you how long I was doing that, but, after a while, my mom came into my room and calmed me down. It took a few minutes for me to settle down.

"'What's wrong, honey?' she asked. And I told her what happened. I just stayed there and cried. She didn't try to stop me.

"'I usually don't warrant crying unless you've been hurt really badly,' she said. 'But you've been hurt, so you can cry.'

"I laid there crying for… who knows how long. My mom was infuriated. That's her. That's my mom. She really cares for her kid. And who can blame her? I'm her only child. Anyway, she had a discussion with my dad, and relayed to him everything that I told her that day."

"Do you remember any of the conversation?" asked Aelita. She was still crying, but still not as much as Jeremie.

"Some. They were both very calm, but I could tell that my mom was not thrilled.

"'Something has to be done about this, Michael. They only pick on him because he's small, and because he's smart,' she said.

"'Let's call the school board,' my dad said.

"'Why not the court?' my mother asked.

"'Don't get me wrong, Rachel. I want them to pay just as much as the next person. But, no judge is going to look at a claim like this without laughing. Trust me, I know,' said my father.

"After that, my parents called the school and asked for profiles on the kids that had harassed me, and she brought it to the school board. She was able to get the kids suspended."

"Only a suspension?" asked Aelita, still tearing, but nowhere near as much as Jeremie was.

"Now I _know _that my mom would love you," said Jeremie.

"Why?"

"_She _said the exact same thing. In fact, after their suspension was up, my parents had another discussion.

"'I want to move him to a different school, Michael,' said my mom. 'First, that school isn't challenging him enough, and second, those jerks are getting more and more violent with him. This has actually been going on since the day they brought him to the police station! They actually broke his glasses this time. And kicked him in the…' she didn't finish her sentence."

"So, anyway, my dad suggested that I be moved to Kadic Academy. He said that it was one of the most challenging places he'd ever been, he made some of his best friends here, and that I'd be away from the bullies. So, here I am. It's been three years since I had my last night terror. But, last week, they came back."

Aelita and Jeremie were still crying. Jeremie's voice actually broke toward the end of his story. Aelita slid on to Jeremie's lap and hugged him. She hugged him tight.

"I'm so sorry, Jeremie," she said. Her voice was cracked. They both cried on each other's shoulder.

"How could somebody be so mean to a sweet boy like you?" she asked.

Jeremie shrugged. He continued to cry. They both lied down on the bed, never letting go of the other. Aelita leaned toward Jeremie and gave him a rather wet kiss. They did not need to part for a while, for they breathed through their noses. Jeremie rubbed Aelita's back some more, and Aelita stroked his. They finally stopped crying after a while.

"I'm sorry about what happened to you, Jeremie. Nobody should ever have to go through that, especially not you," said Aelita.

"It's not your fault, Aelita," answered the bespectacled boy. "I'm glad that you are here with me, though."

"Why?" asked Aelita.

"For some… reason… you just… seem to make me feel better," said Jeremie.

She stared at him for a moment, and then took off his glasses. She then kissed him on the forehead.

"Jeremie. I'm going to sleep in your bed again tonight. And there is not anything you can say that will stop me."

Jeremie smiled at the princess on top of him. _How could anyone be as beautiful and as sweet as this girl? _He thought.

Aelita was about to get up, when Jeremie stopped her.

"Aelita, there is no need for you to sympathize with me. It's in the past. The _distant_ past. I know that I was crying, but I'm pretty much over it."

"Well, I'm going to sleep with you tonight nonetheless."

"I just didn't want you going to bed with me for the wrong reasons," said Jeremie.

"Does a girl need a reason to go to bed with the boy that she loves?" asked Aelita.

Jeremie shrugged.

"Fair enough," he said.

Aelita got up from the bed.

"I'm going to go change, Jeremie," said Aelita. "I'll be back, okay?"

"Take your time, Aelita. I'm in no hurry."

With that, Aelita left. Jeremie took this opportunity to change into _his _pajamas. After changing, Jeremie laid in his bed for a few minutes. He thought about what happened when he was younger, and what would happen if his friends found out. He snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Aelita at the door. She had on a pink bathrobe.

"Are you ready for bed, Jeremie?"

Jeremie nodded.

Aelita took his answer, and removed the robe. Instead of her pink T-shirt with the A, she was now wearing pajamas that came in the form of a pink skirt, and a pink spaghetti-strap top that showed her stomach. It looked like it was made of satin, or silk. Jeremie nearly had a heart attack.

"Is everything alright, Jeremie?" she asked.

He gave a couple hundred rather violent nods, until Aelita caught his head.

"Do you have any idea how I came to get this?" she asked.

"I do _not_!" he answered. He was still staring at her with wide eyes. "Do you have any idea how beautiful you look?!"

Aelita smiled at this, and kissed him on the lips once again, causing him to open and close his mouth like crazy. Aelita must have looked beautiful.

"Yumi and I bought it one day. We went shopping downtown, and we just happened to go by a pajama store. I said to myself, 'Well, Jeremie loves seeing me in pink, and it _is _my favorite color. I think Jeremie will like this.' Was I right, Jeremie?"

Jeremie didn't answer for a few seconds. He was still opening and closing his mouth incoherently. He nodded his head a couple of times. He couldn't lie to her. She looked- there was no other word for it- fantastic.

She laid him down on the bed. When she touched him, he shivered a little. She unbuttoned Jeremie's shirt and threw it to the foot of the bed. She then pulled back the covers, and climbed in with him. He grabbed the covers, still shivering at the sight of the girl next to him, and pulled the covers over them both. He secured the covers over Aelita, making sure that she wouldn't be too warm or too cold. This earned him another kiss on the lips.

"How did I get lucky enough to get such a sweet girlfriend?" asked Jeremie.

She kissed him again.

"Luck had nothing to do with it. And even if it did, _I'd _be the lucky one."

"How do you figure that?" asked Jeremie.

"Well, you saved me from the supercomputer, you materialized me, you found me an antivirus, you helped me regain my memories, and on top of all of that, you are helping me find my father."

Jeremie leaned in and kissed Aelita on the lips. It wasn't long before they parted. Jeremie began massaging Aelita's side, stroking her hair, and holding her close.

"Hey, Jeremie?"

"Yes, Aelita?"

"Do you think I should let my hair grow?"

Jeremie thought about this for a moment. He pictured Aelita with long hair. He decided that she looked good both ways.

"You can if you want. I think you'd look beautiful either way."

Aelita leaned in and kissed Jeremie on the cheek, and closed her eyes. She fell asleep within minutes. Jeremie leaned in and kissed her on the forehead.

"Buenas noches, mi princesa hermosa," he said, before drifting off to sleep.

To Be Continued…


	11. Nightmare

"Code: Insomnia"

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation. If anybody is wondering about the night terror thing, I got it from Boston Legal. I might use more story points from Boston Legal.

Note: I don't know if I'm spelling Jeremie's name right. I've seen it spelled, "Jeremie," and "Jeremy," so just bear with me. If anyone thinks I should change the spelling, send me a review. Yolande is pronounced, "Yo-lawn-duh." And if you're going to read this story, PLEASE at least have the decency to leave a review!

Chapter Eleven

"Nightmare"

Aelita was standing in a field of snow, throwing snowballs at her mother and father. They were throwing them back, but every snowball they threw at her missed. She managed to hit them every time, though. One of the snowballs she threw hit her father in the eye.

"Ow!" exclaimed her dad.

Everyone frowned at first, but then, they were suddenly laughing their heads off. Then, as they stopped laughing, it became dark. Aelita couldn't see a thing. She saw two bright red lights, and her mother looking out the back window of a car.

"Mommy! Wait!" she exclaimed.

"Aelita!"

But it was too late. The car drove away, leaving Aelita behind. She then heard a low growling sound. She turned around to see a gray and black wolf. It had glowing orange eyes, and in those eyes… the eye of Xana.

"No! Please! Stay away!"

The landscape disappeared, and she saw a figure standing in front of her. Where its face should have been was the eye of Xana. And in front of the figure was a blond boy with glasses.

"Jeremie!"

"Aelita!"

"Tell me, Aelita… how much do you love your boyfriend… hmm?" asked the figure, in a gravely voice.

"Don't hurt him!" exclaimed Aelita.

"Too late…" He took out a knife, and jammed it into Jeremie's chest.

"UGH!"

"NO! Jeremie!"

"Aelita… I love you."

Aelita burst into tears.

"Jeremie!" exclaimed Aelita, sitting up out of her bed. She was hyperventilating, and she was sweaty all over.

"Aelita…?" asked Jeremie, waking up.

Aelita looked at her boyfriend, and immediately started crying. She jumped onto him, threw her arms around him and sobbed.

"Jeremie!"

"What's wrong, Aelita?"

"I saw you being stabbed!"

"What?"

"Stabbed!"

"Shh! Shh! Calm down. Calm down. What are you talking about?"

"I just saw Xana, and my mother, and you being stabbed…" she sobbed.

Jeremie held onto her tightly.

"It was a nightmare. You're safe, Aelita… I'm here."

Aelita looked up at him.

"Please don't leave me, Jeremie…" she gripped his shoulder tightly.

Jeremie was shocked at this request.

"What are you talking about?"

She looked up at him, pleading.

"Please, please, don't leave me, Jeremie. I'm scared."

Another tear fell from her eye.

"Aelita… I love you. I'm not going to leave you."

He reached onto his shoulder, and took hold of her hand.

"Feel this…? I'll never let go."

He slid down, and kissed her on the lips.

"I love you, princess. I'm here to protect you."

She continued sobbing into his shoulder, and held as tightly to him as she could. Jeremie couldn't stand to see her like this. He reached toward her with his hand, and lifted her chin up.

"Hey… It's okay, Aelita. I'll never leave you. You'll always have me to protect you. I'll always love you, Aelita… no matter what. I promise."

Aelita managed a small smile before returning to her original expression. She let her head fall back down on his shoulder, and let the rest of her tears fall out.

He began caressing her back up and down until she fell asleep. Sleep began to grip him too, but he still held onto her hand.

To Be Continued…


	12. The Beginning of a Break

"Code: Insomnia"

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation. If anybody is wondering about the night terror thing, I got it from Boston Legal. I might use more story points from Boston Legal.

Note: I don't know if I'm spelling Jeremie's name right. I've seen it spelled, "Jeremie," and "Jeremy," so just bear with me. If anyone thinks I should change the spelling, send me a review. Yolande is pronounced, "Yo-lawn-duh." And if you're going to read this story, PLEASE at least have the decency to leave a review!

Chapter Twelve

"The Beginning of a Break"

"I guess I'm really not the only one who needs a break," said Jeremie, when he spoke to the gang at their usual table.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you mind if I tell them, Aelita?" asked Jeremie.

"Uh, no. Go ahead."

"Aelita had her usual nightmare last night. Her mother was taken away, and a wolf bounded toward her. And then I got stabbed in the heart."

"I had a nightmare, too," said Yumi. "William came up to me, and stabbed me a bunch of times."

Ulrich spoke up.

"I had a nightmare about being at the top of the Empire State Building. I was hanging onto a flagpole, and it was starting to bend."

"I had a nightmare that all the food in the cafeteria had been Xanafied," said Odd. "WORST! NIGHTMARE! EVER!"

Jeremie shook his head.

"Jeez. Xana's really starting to get to us in the worst way possible."

"Remember those phony prescriptions that the doctor gave you, Jeremie?" asked Ulrich.

"What about them?" asked Jeremie.

"I think now would be a good time to use them. We need to get out of this place for a while."

"What if Xana attacks?" asked Jeremie.

"We'll come racing back here," said Ulrich.

Jeremie pondered for a moment, but finally nodded.

"Okay. Why don't you come to my room? I'll call my dad and see about using the prescriptions."

The gang followed Jeremie to his room, and dialed the number for his parents' house. The phone rang a few times, and his father picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, dad," said Jeremie.

"Hey, son. How are you?" asked Mr. Belpois in a cheerful tone.

"We wanted to talk to you about something. By the way, just so you know, you're on speaker."

"Your friends are there with you, too?"

"Yep."

"How are you all today?"

"Good," they all said in unison.

"Ulrich, how did last weekend's soccer game go?"

"Not too bad, Mr. Belpois. We won by two points."

"Good. Yumi, how's the family?"

"Everyone's fine, Mr. Belpois, but my brother's as annoying as ever."

"I know what you mean. I have a younger brother, too. How did your tour with the Subdigitals go, Aelita?"

"They included the song I mixed in their latest album."

"I'll have to pick up the CD. How's Kiwi, Odd?"

"He's fine, Mr. Belpois."

"So, what can I do for you all?"

"Well… It's something that I think both you and mom should hear," said Jeremie.

"Oh. Okay. I'll get her. Honey! Jeremie's on the phone!"

They heard faint footsteps, and Mrs. Belpois spoke.

"Jeremie?"

"Hi, mom."

"How's school going?"

"Not too bad," said Jeremie, "but… things have been happening for the past few days that I thought you two should know about."

"What is that, dear?" asked Mrs. Belpois.

"Well… you remember when I was eight, and I started having night terrors?"

"Please tell me you haven't started having them again," said Mrs. Belpois, in a worried tone.

"I would love to, but you guys told me never to lie to you," said Jeremie.

"Good God. You wait at the school, and we'll take you to see the doctor," said Mr. Belpois.

"I already saw one," said Jeremie. "Yesterday. He did an MRI on me, and he suggested that I take a vacation."

"A vacation?"

"He said that my night terrors could be a side effect of stress. See, I called you guys because I wanted to know if you had anything planned."

"Well, me and your mother were planning on going to Canada to celebrate our anniversary. We could take you with us, if you like."

"Well, I would love that, but I wondered if you would mind bringing the others as well."

"Well, I don't know about that," said Mr. Belpois.

"The doctor gave the rest of us phony prescriptions so that we could go with Jeremie on this break of his," said Odd.

"What does that mean?" asked Mrs. Belpois.

"It means the doctor wants them to come with me, he feels that friends would help with the remedial process, he gave them fake prescriptions and there is absolutely nothing to be gained in asking how or why."

"He did what?" asked Mr. Belpois.

"Believe me, Dad. I was just as surprised as you were. You're not mad, are you?"

"Mad? Of course not, son. This would give us sufficient reason to take them out of school. Have you told the principal about this?"

"No. But, we were going to. We just wanted to get the okay from you first, and we still have Odd's, Ulrich's and Yumi's parents to worry about."

"Let me worry about them, Jeremie," said Mr. Belpois. "You just go talk to Mr. Delmas about it. Have you spoken to Mr. and Mrs. Stones?"

"Yeah. They okayed Aelita to come with us."

"Okay. Like I said, go talk to Mr. Delmas, I'll handle everything else."

"What were you two planning on doing in Canada, anyway?" asked Jeremie.

"Well, really, we're doing the vacation in thirds. First, we're going on a fishing trip in the wilderness, then we were going to go to Calgary. After that, we're going to take a trip to Dutch Harbor in Alaska."

"A fishing trip?" asked Jeremie.

"There's great fishing in Canada, son."

"I can imagine," said Jeremie. "I know how you like to fish, dad."

"Anyway, just call us after you talk to Mr. Delmas, and I'll call your friends' parents," said Mr. Belpois. "Be sure to have everything packed up when I get there. I'll see you all later."

"Goodbye, dad," said Jeremie.

"Goodbye, Mr. Belpois," said Aelita.

"Okay, before I hang up, I want to tell you the first rule of the trip," said Mr. Belpois.

"What is that?" asked Ulrich.

"You guys have to stop calling me Mr. Belpois. Call me Michael."

"Okay, Michael," said Aelita. "We'll see you later."

"Goodbye, everyone," said Mrs. Belpois.

"Goodbye, uh…" said Odd, trying to decide whether to call her Mrs. Belpois or by her first name.

"Rachel."

"Oh. Okay. We'll see you in a while, Rachel," said Ulrich.

"See you in a while."

They hung up the phone, and Jeremie clicked the speaker button off.

"Well, guys. Let's go talk to the principal."

As they made their way to the principal's office, they met Sissi. Odd reacted in no time.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up," he said, from the moment they walked out of Jeremie's room to the point where they walked out the door.

"What was that about?" asked Ulrich.

"I just thought I'd keep her from making any snide comments. The consecutive shut up works every time."

They made their way to the receptionist's desk.

"May I help you?" she asked.

"We came here to see Mr. Delmas," said Jeremie.

"Go on in. He shouldn't be busy at the moment."

"Thank you."

He opened the door and found Mr. Delmas typing on his computer.

"Good morning, Mr. Delmas."

"How may I help you, Belpois?" he asked.

"We wanted to talk to you about taking a break from school."

"A break? How long do you intend on?"

"A few weeks."

"Huh. Is there a specific reason?"

"You remember my uh… night terror problem?"

"Does this have something to do with it?"

"I got a doctor's note, telling me to take a vacation from school."

Jeremie handed the note to Mr. Delmas who examined it thoroughly.

"My friends also got doctor's notes for different conditions."

They each handed Mr. Delmas their notes, and he looked them all over.

"These all seem to be in order. I'll be more than happy to let you take time off, Jeremie."

"Thank you, Mr. Delmas. I need one more thing, though."

"What's that?"

"Do you think you could have our teachers e-mail our homework to us?"

"Of course."

He filled out a slip, and handed it to Jeremie.

"We look forward to your healthy and safe return, Jeremie."

"Thank you, sir."

Jeremie walked out of the room, with his friends in toe.

"That was easier than I thought it would be," said Jeremie.

"What next?" asked Ulrich.

"We call my dad, and he comes to pick us up," said Jeremie, dialing on his phone. "Yeah, dad, we just got done talking to the principal. He's okay with the break. He'll have our teachers e-mail our homework to us. They okayed it? Okay. We'll be out in a bit to meet you. See you."

The group each went to their rooms to pack up their things, and met on the school grounds. Jeremie's father drove up in a long, black car.

"Hello, everyone."

"Hey, Michael," said Yumi, throwing her suitcase in the trunk. "We're ready to go."

"Okay, everyone. Hop in."

The gang did as they were told, and hopped into the car as soon as their luggage was packed.

"I must say, it's good to officially meet all of you," said Michael, shaking each of their hands. He then put the car into gear and started driving.

"So, what's on our agenda, Michael?" asked Ulrich.

"Well, you guys can stay at our house for the first two days, and then we'll leave for Canada. We'll be leaving at six for the airport, so, be sure to go to bed early, okay?"

Everyone nodded.

"You'll see, you kids are going to have a blast."

To Be Continued…


	13. The House of Belpois

"Code: Insomnia"

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation. If anybody is wondering about the night terror thing, I got it from Boston Legal. I might use more story points from Boston Legal.

Note: I don't know if I'm spelling Jeremie's name right. I've seen it spelled, "Jeremie," and "Jeremy," so just bear with me. If anyone thinks I should change the spelling, send me a review. Yolande is pronounced, "Yo-lawn-duh." And if you're going to read this story, PLEASE at least have the decency to leave a review!

Chapter Thirteen

"The House of Belpois"

While Michael was driving the car, the gang was sitting in the back seats enjoying themselves. He smiled to himself. He was happy knowing that his son had made such good friends… and such a good girlfriend. It was as he finished that last thought that he pulled up into the parking lot of a large house.

"We're here, everyone," he announced, pulling the car to a stop.

Everyone peeled out of the car and looked at the house in front of them. It wasn't a very tall house, but it was very wide, suggesting that it had a lot of rooms.

"Welcome to the house of Belpois," said Michael. This caused Jeremie to blush slightly.

As the gang was making to get their luggage out of the car, a tall man with white hair who looked to be in his late sixties came down the steps leading up to the front door.

"Welcome back, Master Jeremie," he said, with a smile and a British accent.

"How's it going, Jeffrey?" asked Jeremie, coming up to hug the man.

"Things have not been the same without you, sir. It's good to have you back. Would these happen to be your friends?"

"Yes, they are. This is Aelita Stones, Odd Della Robbia, Yumi Ishiyama, and Ulrich Stern."

"It's a pleasure to meet each of you. Why don't you all go on inside and make yourselves at home, and I'll take your luggage inside."

"We can get it, Jeffrey. It's no problem," said Yumi.

"It's no trouble for me, either, Miss Yumi," pulling her black suitcase out of the car.

"No offense, Jeffrey, but we're not used to being waited on," said Odd.

"Not to worry, Master Odd," said Jeffrey, pulling out his purple suitcase. "Think of it this way. You're staying here for two days. You don't need to get used to it. You can just enjoy it while it lasts. Not that I don't wish you could stay longer."

"Well, thanks," said Ulrich.

"No trouble at all, Master Ulrich."

He pushed down the lid of the trunk, and began carrying their luggage inside.

"You should begin to make your way inside. I expect Mrs. Belpois cannot wait to meet you all."

"Thanks again, Jeff," said Odd.

"Anytime, Master Della Robbia."

The gang went ahead, and asked Jeremie to explain a few things.

"You never told me you had a butler, Jeremie," said Odd.

"I didn't want you guys getting the wrong idea," said Jeremie, tugging the collar of his turtleneck

"What wrong idea?" asked Aelita.

"I didn't want you guys thinking that I was one of those spoiled rich kids. People like that tend not to have a lot of friends, let alone…"

He trailed off, wondering if he should finish his sentence.

"You can say it," said Aelita.

Jeremie hesitated.

"Girlfriends," he mumbled.

"Sorry?" asked Aelita.

"Girlfriends!" he whispered loudly. "I'm sorry. I just didn't want to-"

"Jeremie!" exclaimed Odd.

"What?"

"Apology accepted," said Odd, smiling, and patting Jeremie's shoulder.

"Jeremie!" exclaimed a female voice.

"Mom!"

The gang looked behind Jeremie to see a woman with long blonde hair and half-moon glasses, walking toward her son. She embraced him and kissed him on the forehead.

"How was your trip, honey?"

"Good. Mom, there's some people here I want you to meet. This is Ulrich Stern, Odd Della Robbia, Yumi Ishiyama, and Aelita Stones."

Mrs. Belpois smiled.

"It's good to meet you all. Jeremie's told me and Michael so much about you."

"It's good to finally meet you as well, Mrs. Belpois," said Yumi.

"Oh, please, call me Rachel. You call me Mrs. Belpois, and I turn around looking for Jeremie's grandmother."

"Oh, okay," said Yumi.

"Madame?" asked Jeffrey.

"Yes, Jeff?"

"I suspect the cookies you were making are finished. Would you like them taken out?"

"Oh, no. Leave them in there, Jeff. They're the special ones."

"Ah, yes. Very well, then."

With that, Jeffrey turned around and walked out.

"He seems nice," said Ulrich.

"He is, Ulrich," said Rachel. "Jeffrey's been working for our family since before Jeremie was born. He may do a lot of house work, but he's like one of the family."

"Uh, mom? Where exactly will they be sleeping?"

"Oh, yes. Jeffrey will show you to your rooms when you want to see them. Just let him know, and he'll show them to you. In the mean time, who's-"

"Wait! Mom!" exclaimed Jeremie.

"Hungry?" asked Rachel.

With that, Odd made a mad dash for the kitchen… or would have, if Ulrich hadn't been restraining him.

"Whew! That was a close one," said Jeremie.

"What's the matter, Jeremie?"

"Oh, uh… let's just say that Odd has a black hole for a stomach. Mention food, he'll pile his plate high with it."

"Oh, yeah. You told me about that in one of your e-mails. He doesn't look like he could eat you out of house and home."

"High metabolism," whispered Yumi.

Finally, Odd stopped struggling, and Ulrich released him.

"Would you like me to give your friends a tour, sir?" asked Jeffrey, re-entering the room.

"I'll take care of it, Jeff," said Jeremie. "Follow me."

He led them to a hallway that was one floor above them.

"This hallway has all the bedrooms. This is where we'll be sleeping. Each room has a grand king bed. It's the biggest bed available."

"Sleeper's Paradise," said Odd.

"Snorer's Paradise," said Ulrich, causing the others to laugh.

Jeremie led them to a balcony overlooking the back yard.

"Down there, we have a self-maintaining pool, and a bunch of beach chairs. There's also a beverage stand near the pool."

"You swim, Jeremie?" asked Yumi.

"Yeah. Well, not… excessively, but yeah."

"You're not a French Michael Phelps?"

"'Fraid not," said Jeremie, shrugging. "Let's move on, shall we? I forgot to mention, no food, drink or cameras allowed during the tour."

"Nice," said Odd, shaking his head.

Jeremie led them into another room, where there was a mess of band equipment. There was an assortment of electric guitars, horns, drums, keyboards, etc.

"Wow. This looks like one of the guitars that Jimi Hendrix played," said Odd, picking up a guitar and strumming on it.

"Me and my dad used to come in here and play with the instruments in our spare time. You guys want to see the entertainment room?"

Jeremie led them to the west end of the top floor. Inside was a large flat screen TV mounted on the wall, with speakers on either side, and plugged into it were an assortment of video game consoles.

"Wow, dude!" said Odd. "Look at all these games!"

"Yeah, I was an avid gamer before the Lyoko days," said Jeremie. "You like music?" He pushed a button on a remote.

(Highway to Hell)

(AC/DC)

"Nice!" said Odd. "You got American music, too!"

_Livin' easy_

_Lovin' free_

_Season ticket on a one-way ride_

_Askin' nothin'_

_Leave me be_

_Takin' everythin' in my stride_

"AC/DC?" asked Ulrich, reading the CD case

_Ain't nothin' I would rather do_

_Goin' down_

_For a time_

_My friends are gonna be there too_

_I'm on the Highway to Hell_

_Highway to hell_

_On the Highway to Hell_

_I'm on the Highway to Hell_

"I gotta admit," said Ulrich. "The entertainment room's not too shabby."

"You should see the living room."

"Why don't we?" asked Aelita. "We could watch a movie with your parents while we're here."

"Good idea, Aelita," said Jeremie.

He exited the room, programming the CD player to stop on its own on his way out.

_And I'm going down_

_On the Highway to Hell_

_(Song Ends)_

"Hey, Stephen," said Jeremie, looking down at the floor as he and the gang were walking down the hall.

"Who are you talking to, Jeremie?" asked Ulrich.

Jeremie pointed down.

"My cat."

The cat looked up at the gang and meowed.

"Aw, how cute," said Aelita. "I didn't know you had a cat."

"Everyone, this is Stephen the calico."

"Why'd you name him Stephen?" asked Ulrich.

"After Stephen Hawking."

"An Einstein AND a Stephen Hawking," said Odd. "Unusual."

"Hold onto Stephen for me, will you, Aelita? Here, Nick!" exclaimed Jeremie.

As Jeremie called, a German shepherd came down the hall, tackled Jeremie to the ground, and began licking his face.

"Nick! Nick, stop it! Knock it off! Haha!" giggled Jeremie.

"And who's this?" asked Odd.

"This is Nick the German shepherd, named after Nikola Tesla. What is it, boy? Are you hungry?"

The dog barked a couple times, and let out a moan.

"Alright, then. Come on, boy. We'll get you some food. Let's go."

As they were coming to the living room, they passed Jeffrey.

"Hey, Jeffrey?"

"Yes, Master Jeremie?"

"Do you know where the pet food is?"

The man quirked an eyebrow.

"Of course you know. You fed them while I was away. Could you tell me where it is?"

"It's in the pantry."

"Thanks, Jeffrey."

"Anytime, sir."

Jeremie went to the pantry, and got out a dog's bowl and a bag of dog food. He poured some into the bowl and put the food back.

"Here you go, Nicky."

The dog began to eat ravenously.

"Where were we?" asked Jeremie. "Oh, right. The living room."

In the living room was a fireplace, several comfortable couches, and a larger TV than the one in the entertainment room.

"Do you mind me asking something, Einstein?" asked Odd.

"You're wondering why my family can afford so much."

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"It's one of the questions that would come to mind if I were in your place. My father had a bit of a high salary as the Chief of Police, and my mother earned quite a bit as an architect."

"Does she still work?"

"Every once in a while she gets a call from someone wanting her to design a building, so, yeah."

"Master Jeremie?"

"Yes, Jeffrey?"

"Your mother said to let you know that dinner is ready," said the butler.

"Tell her we'll be right there," said Jeremie.

"Yes, sir."

The man turned and walked toward the kitchen.

"Well, this is it," said Jeremie. "I hope you guys enjoy yourselves here."

"Oh, you can count on that, Jeremie," said Odd.

They followed Jeffrey into the kitchen.

"Will you and your guests be eating separately, sir, or will you be eating with your mother and father?" asked Jeffrey.

"We'll eat with them."

"Very well, then."

Jeremie and the others went to the dining room. Michael was at the head of the table, with Rachel sitting at his right. Jeremie sat at his right, with Aelita next to him. Odd sat next to Aelita. Ulrich sat next to Rachel with Yumi sitting next to him.

"So, what are we having, Rachel?" asked Odd.

"Do you like Italian, Odd?" asked Rachel.

"Yeah, I can do Italian."

"We're having lasagna with Italian sausage, and spaghetti with meatballs and parmesan cheese."

"I hope it's the shredded stuff," said Odd.

"There's both sitting at the table. We'll also be having breadsticks."

"Sounds delicious," said Odd.

Jeffrey came out with two large platters and set them on the table.

"So, who cooked?" asked Yumi.

"Jeffrey did," said Michael.

"Thank you, Jeffrey," said Ulrich. "The lasagna looks particularly good."

"My pleasure, Master Ulrich."

He then began pouring liquid into wineglasses and handed them to the diners.

"For the adults, Chevalle-Blanc 1947, and for the minors, real Italian grape juice."

The diners took their glasses and smiled. Jeremie raised his glass.

"To us, to those like us, and to those who love us."

"Here, here," said Michael.

They tapped their glasses together and took a swig. Shortly afterwards, they began to eat.

"Jeffrey?" asked Odd.

"Yes, Master Odd?"

"I don't see any parmesan cheese here. I would like some for my spaghetti."

"One moment, sir."

Jeffrey went back into the kitchen and grabbed a block of pale cheese, and a cheese grinder. He began grinding the cheese over Odd's spaghetti.

"What is this, Olive Garden?" asked Odd, with a smile.

"Enjoy."

"Thanks, Jeff."

Odd dug right into his spaghetti.

"This really is delicious," he said through a mouthful of noodles.

Michael attempted conversation with Aelita.

"So, Aelita, how are things with you in school?"

"They're good. Jeremie and I are the top in our class."

"What are you best at?"

"Well, I'd have to say mathematics."

"Do you have a favorite subject?" asked Rachel.

"Well, I like history."

"Oh," said Michael. "Any particular events?"

"Well, I'm quite fascinated with American history. I've got to admit though, when I learned about the French Revolution, I never wanted to read about it again."

"Gruesome times," said Rachel. "C'est la vie."

Aelita chose this point in time to realize that Jeremie had been unusually quiet the whole dinner.

"Jeremie?" whispered Aelita. "Are you okay? You haven't said a word since we started eating."

"Oh, I'm fine," said Jeremie.

Aelita looked Jeremie in the eye.

"Really?"

Jeremie averted his gaze.

"Yeah."

Aelita looked worried.

"Would you guys excuse us for a minute?" asked Aelita. "I need to talk to Jeremie about something."

"Take your time," said Rachel.

Aelita led Jeremie out into the living room and sat him on the couch.

"What's going on, Jeremie."

Jeremie shrugged in a surrendering manner.

"I want to tell them about us. But I don't want them bugging us about our relationship."

"That's what's bothering you?" asked Aelita.

"Well, not… totally."

"You can tell me, Jeremie."

Jeremie closed his eyes, as if it would shield him from some imminent blow.

"What's bothering me is that I haven't been affectionate with you because I was afraid of how they might react. I know they'll be happy, but I'm afraid that they might start badgering us about it."

Aelita laid her hand on Jeremie's.

"Let's tell them together, Jeremie. That way, you won't feel as aggravated."

Jeremie considered this for a moment.

"Okay. Let's go."

They came back into the room to find Jeffrey serving Odd a second helping of lasagna.

"Let me know if there's anything else I can get you, Master Della Robbia."

"You got it, Jeff."

"Mom? Dad?" asked Jeremie.

"Yes, Jeremie?" asked Rachel.

"What is it, son?" asked Michael.

"There's something that me and Aelita want to tell you. I imagine it isn't a big surprise, but… Aelita and I are dating."

Michael smirked.

"I figured as much. You two look great together."

Rachel smiled.

"You didn't have to keep that a secret from us, Jeremie. You've told us so much about her. She sounded sweet from what you described. We wouldn't be mad if you were dating."

"I wasn't really worried about you guys being mad, so much as… overly pleased."

"What, overly pleased that our son isn't lonely anymore?" asked Rachel.

"That our son has a life outside computers?" asked Michael.

"Dad…" said Jeremie.

"Your father has a point, Master Jeremie."

"Oh, come on, Jeffrey. Not you, too."

"I have actually noticed that you are a lot happier today than you have been for the most part in this house, sir."

"Well, Aelita is so… amazing. How can I not be?"

"Jeremie…" said Aelita.

"You two are sickeningly sweet," said Yumi.

_Wish me and Yumi were like that,_ thought Ulrich.

"Look, Jeremie, what we're trying to say is, that we're happy that you have a happy, loving relationship," said Michael.

"Look, I'm sorry for keeping it a secret from you guys. I didn't know how you guys would take it."

"I'm glad that you came into Master Jeremie's life, Miss Aelita."

"Thank you, Jeffrey."

"I'll be off to get your desserts," said Jeffrey.

Rachel took off her glasses and wiped them.

"You made a good choice, Aelita. Jeremie's a special one."

Aelita laid her hand on Jeremie's, and looked at him.

"I think so, too…" he said, more to him than anyone else.

She leaned in and pecked him on the cheek. Moments later, Jeffrey came back in with a platter full of desserts.

"Can I interest any of you in some desserts?"

"Don't you always?" asked Jeremie.

"For Master Della Robbia, a plate of French vanilla ice cream, and one of the large chocolate chip cookies, fresh from the oven."

"Wow! It's the size of the plate!" said Odd.

"For Master Stern, a chocolate parfait."

"Thanks, Jeffrey."

"For Miss Ishiyama, a chocolate rice pudding."

"Sounds delicious," said Yumi.

"Uh, Jeffrey?" asked Jeremie.

"Yes, sir?"

"Could I stop you for a second?"

"What is it, Master Jeremie?"

"Can you come with me to the kitchen?"

"Certainly."

Jeffrey followed Jeremie into the kitchen.

"Is something wrong, Master Jeremie?"

"No, I just… I want to do something for Aelita, and I wonder if you might be able to help me."

"Of course."

"I want to make Aelita a special dessert. And I'd like to get her a gift tomorrow."

Jeffrey smiled.

"I can see what's happening, sir," he said.

"What- do you mean?"

"I saw this same thing happen when your mother and your father got together, Master Jeremie. Your father started doing things just to show your mother how much he loved, and still loves, her."

"Like father, like son, I guess," said Jeremie.

"What did you have in mind for this dessert, sir?"

"Well… I don't know. She likes croissants. She likes hot chocolate… I have it."

Back in the kitchen, the family was talking about the trip.

"So, we're staying another night here after this," said Michael. "And then we're going to board a plane for a fishing lodge in Canada."

"Right," said Ulrich, "and then we'll head to Calgary from there to stay at a hotel."

"Then, after that, we'll head to Alaska," said Rachel.

"Well, sounds like a plan," said Odd.

Just then, the gang heard a barking sound coming from under the table.

"What was that?" asked Michael.

"I think I know," said Odd, looking under the table. When he did so, he spotted a small mutt with a weird-looking nose. "Kiwi! You stowaway! Did you sneak into my backpack, my little diggity dog?"

"That's Kiwi?" asked Michael.

"Yeah. He must have snuck into my backpack before we left."

"He's kind of cute," said Rachel.

Aelita looked toward the kitchen.

"Have you two noticed that Jeffrey and Jeremie have been gone for an awfully long time?"

Just then, Jeremie came in through the swinging door.

"Sorry about that, guys. What'd I miss?"

"Well, we were just talking about the trip," said Michael. "We just did a quick recap. You didn't miss much."

"That's good."

"What were you and Jeffrey discussing in there?" asked Ulrich.

"Oh, we were just discussing what I should get for Patrick's next birthday. Not really important."

Jeffrey came out the door bearing a small platter for Aelita.

"For Miss Stones, a plate of croissants, with a thermos of hot chocolate, strawberry whipped cream, and some strawberry pudding."

Aelita began eating joyfully.

"It's delicious, Jeffrey," said Aelita.

"For your pleasure, the hot chocolate is freshly made, with a dash of whole milk."

"Thank you, Jeffrey," said Aelita.

"My pleasure."

After everyone had finished eating their food, Jeffrey joined them at the table for a bit of small talk.

"And Master Jeremie landed on the trampoline, unharmed, while I, on the other hand was sitting on the ground, nursing a fractured tailbone. That was the first and last time that Jeremie convinced me to play on a trampoline."

Everyone at the table laughed, including Jeffrey.

"Well, I think I've embarrassed Master Jeremie enough to last a week. I'll deal with these dishes momentarily."

"Don't worry about it, Jeffrey," said Michael. "The dishes can wait till morning. Why don't you go get some sleep?"

"Thank you, Master Michael. Good night, everyone."

Jeffrey headed down the hall toward what everyone assumed was his bedroom.

"Oh, I forgot," said Michael. "Jeffrey was supposed to show you to your rooms. Oh, well. I guess we'll do it."

With that, the Belpois family and their guests rose from the table, and Michael and Rachel led them to their rooms.

"Aelita's going to have a separate room, right, mom?" asked Jeremie.

"What?" asked Aelita.

"My mom and dad have this rule about boys and girls sharing rooms-"

"No, no, no," said Michael. "By all means, share. We're fine with it. As long as your parents don't mind."

"Well, I don't think that they would, since the relationships I've had were so few."

"We'll see you all in the morning," said Michael. "You sleep soundly."

"We will," said Jeremie.

The gang took turns taking showers. After they showered, they got dressed, and went into their own rooms. Jeremie and Aelita then went into one of the rooms together. Ulrich and Yumi went into separate rooms, and Kiwi and Odd got a room to themselves.

When Odd got into his bed, he decided that he had too many blankets, so he pulled one off and laid it on the floor for Kiwi to lay on, thinking that Mr. and Mrs. Belpois wouldn't mind. It didn't take to long for him to fall asleep.

Ulrich tried several times to go to sleep, but he couldn't. He was bothered greatly by something. Something that was sleeping next door to him. He finally got out of bed, and put on his bathrobe. He then exited his room, and knocked on the door next door. He heard a stirring inside. He was about to walk away when the door opened.

"Ulrich?" asked a groggy Yumi. "What are you doing up so late?"

"I… uh… I wanted to talk to you about something, but it can wait till morning." Ulrich made to walk away, but Yumi grabbed his shoulder.

"Ulrich…"

She pulled him into her room, and shut the door.

"Tell me what's bothering you, Ulrich."

Ulrich looked at the floor.

"I can't take being quiet about this anymore. I've felt this for as long as I can remember…"

"What are you talking about, Ulrich?"

Ulrich leaned in, and gently pressed his lips against Yumi's. He was half-expecting her to wake all the way up and slap him silly, but she didn't.

"I'm in love with you, Yumi. I have been since I met you. You don't have to say that you're in love with me, but that's how I feel."

Yumi looked into his eyes. She was speechless. The boy that she loved had just confessed to her that he was in love with her. She leaned in and kissed him back. She leaned forward and asserted her weight on him, and they both fell backward onto the bed, kissing. Ulrich moved his hand to the small of her back and began rubbing her up and down. He was massaging her. Yumi was in awe of how good this felt. She was in the arms of her dream boy, and all alone. She finally pulled apart from him and leaned her forehead against his.

"I love you too, Ulrich."

Ulrich turned to leave, but Yumi held onto him.

"Please stay with me."

Ulrich looked into his dream girl's eyes, and saw the look of want in them.

"Just let me go get my stuff, and I'll be right in. I won't be gone long, I promise."

Ulrich came back into the room a few minutes later with his pajamas. He slipped them on, and crawled into bed with her. He snaked his arms around her and brought her head up to his shoulder, letting her rest her head on it.

"Good night, Yumi."

"Good night, Ulrich."

For the first time in a long time, Ulrich fell asleep with a smile on his face.

_At about the same time…_

Jeremie was just finishing getting dressed. He was dressed in his usual button-up shirt with blue pants. He flipped on a small TV on the wall to watch a little bit of the news while he waited for Aelita. Shortly after he turned on the TV, however, said girl walked into the room wearing a bathrobe.

"Enjoy your shower?" asked Jeremie.

"Yes. The shower here is a lot better than at Kadic," said Aelita, beginning to disrobe.

"I know. The hot water lasts longer and the pressure is higher-ohh!" Jeremie turned to look at Aelita and saw her only in her underwear. She just looked at him with a smile when he jumped back looking frightened.

"What's the matter, Jeremie?" asked Aelita.

"I-I thought you were going to put on some p-pajamas," stuttered the genius.

"I was. I happened to put these on under my bathrobe. Do you not like seeing me like this?"

"It's not that," said Jeremie, trying to avert his gaze.

Aelita walked up to him, and led him out of the bed.

"It's okay to look at me, Jeremie. I'm not sure, but I think that's the perk of having a girlfriend." She smiled at him. "Why don't you hold me?"

"Aelita… I… I don't think that… I… I think I would be overstepping my boundaries if I did that…"

Aelita chuckled.

"Jeremie, you can be so sweet sometimes. Come here."

She pulled him closer and nestled into his arms. He could feel him shudder, but she knew that it was because he wasn't used to this, not because he didn't love her. And for that, she was relieved.

"Here, Jeremie."

She began unbuttoning his shirt. Once she succeeded in this, she threw it on the bed. He rolled his eyes and took off his pants, throwing them next to their companion.

"There," said Jeremie.

"What's the matter, Jeremie?"

"I just don't know if I should be looking at you- let alone holding you- like this."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. I guess… I guess I just have too much respect for you. I don't want to tarnish that respect for you by looking at you the wrong way."

Aelita tilted her head.

"Jeremie… look at me. I am the one who decides who deserves me, who deserves this, who deserves to look at me like this. And the one I choose… is you."

Jeremie gulped. He couldn't believe it. The girl he loved was letting him look at her with hardly anything on.

"And there is no wrong way to look at me, Jeremie. Not from you. Because I know that any look I get from you is one of love. You're a very sweet boy, Jeremie. That's why I'm in love with you."

Jeremie let out a small smile.

"Come on, Jeremie. Let's go to bed."

Aelita led him over to the bed, and lifted up the covers. She let him crawl in first, and then crawled in after him. He then secured the covers around them both. He wanted to make sure that Aelita was completely comfortable.

"Like I said… You can be so sweet sometimes."

She lifted her head up, and kissed his lips.

"Thank you, Jeremie."

"For what?"

"For everything. For turning on the supercomputer. For materializing me. For finding my antivirus. For helping me try to find my father. For loving me."

Jeremie looked down at her.

"Aelita, those aren't things you have to thank me for."

Aelita laid her head down on his shoulder.

"Jeremie, you have got to stop being so modest. You've been more help to me than I could ever ask for."

"Well, I didn't do any of that stuff alone. I nearly always had help."

"I know. But you still did it. That's all that matters to me."

Jeremie smiled.

"Your welcome," he said.

Aelita looked back up at him.

"By the way, whose idea was the croissants and steaming hot chocolate?"

Jeremie averted his gaze.

"In point of fact, it was mine. I asked Jeffrey if he could help me put it together."

Aelita moved back up to his face, and kissed him on the lips again.

"That was very thoughtful of you."

She then laid back down on him, and they just held each other until they fell asleep.

"Good night, Aelita," said Jeremie, falling asleep.

"Good night, my savior," she said.

To Be Continued…


	14. On the Town

"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. I do not own any of the characters, their weapons, their abilities, or any of their universes, nor do I own any of the lyrics that will appear in later chapters, or any of the products mentioned in the story such as Coca-Cola, or Playstation.

Chapter Fourteen

"On the Town"

As usual, Jeremie woke up feeling relaxed and refreshed. He turned his head to the right, and saw a flurry of pink. Aelita was still slumbering next to him. It was then that he noticed the feel of her skin against his hand. He put his other arm around her, and pulled her closer. He hugged her body to his and closed his eyes once again. Even though it had been several weeks since they had become exclusive, he still could not believe that he was lucky enough to have found a girl to love him. He pulled her closer, if that was at all possible, and relishing the feeling of her skin against his.

When he was just about to go back to sleep, he felt her lips press against his like they had so many times before. She smiled at him and slowly opened her eyes.

"How did you sleep…?"

"Cushy mattress, warm blankets, no nightmares, most beautiful girl in the world next to me… hmmm… I'd say I slept pretty well."

"I'm glad to hear it… Do you know what time it is?"

Jeremie picked up his watch from the bedside table and looked at it… 9 AM.

"I think we'd probably better get up. Jeffrey usually starts breakfast around this time. And, if you thought his dinner was good, you don't want to miss his breakfasts."

"We'd better go, then," said Aelita.

She began to move, but before she could go any farther out of the bed, Jeremie stopped her short with a hand on her shoulder.

"Something wrong, Jeremie?"

Jeremie leaned forward and kissed Aelita on the lips.

"Sorry. Just needed another."

Aelita smirked.

"That's fine, Jeremie."

She dropped out of the bed and began putting on her usual pink sweater and dark pink jumper, while Jeremie grabbed his usual blue turtleneck shirt and put it on. Jeremie then walked to the door, opened it, and gestured for Aelita to come with him. Aelita smiled and obliged. Jeremie crooked his arm and let Aelita slide her own in.

"I can already smell those waffles," said Jeremie. "Better not keep Jeffrey waiting."

"Wait," said Aelita.

"What?" asked Jeremie.

Aelita answered him with another kiss on the lips. Jeremie smiled into the kiss.

"I needed that. Let's kind of curb it for breakfast, though."

"Good idea."

She slipped her arm through the crook, and Jeremie led her downstairs.

"Good morning, Master Jeremie, Miss Aelita," said Jeffrey.

"Morning, Jeffrey. Sleep well?"

"Oh, yes. And yourself?"

"How could I not?" asked Jeremie, pulling Aelita closer. "What's for breakfast, Jeff?"

"We have scrambled eggs, with shredded cheese mixed in, just the way you like it. We have crisp bacon, hot, buttery pancakes with strawberry syrup, and freshly brewed coffee and hot chocolate. And, I emphasize 'hot.'"

"You won't have to worry about any of that going to waste, Jeffrey. Odd'll probably devour what we don't."

"It's a good thing, then, that I always make plenty, sir."

"Yes, it is."

Jeffrey tilted his head to Jeremie slightly before turning back to the kitchen.

"Oh, and Jeffrey?"

"Yes, Master Jeremie?"

"How soon can we do that… thing I talked to you about?"

"We can leave after you've had your breakfast, sir. Does that sound reasonable?"

"Excellent. How soon will breakfast be ready?"

"The meal should be ready in a matter of minutes. Why not make yourself comfortable until then?"

"I'm just going to let our friends know that breakfast is almost ready. Did you happen to see any of them get up?"

"Master Della Robbia is enjoying the entertainment room. I believe that Miss Ishiyama and Master Stern are still in their rooms, however."

"There's one more thing, Jeffrey."

"Yes, sir?"

"Are my parents around?"

"Your father is in the den reading the morning paper, and your mother is still in bed."

"Thanks, Jeffrey."

"Not at all, sir."

Jeffrey turned and walked back into the kitchen, where he picked up his work on breakfast. Jeremie and Aelita turned and walked down the hall leading to the entertainment room.

"Jeffrey seems happy to be working for you guys."

"There's a bit of a story behind that. My grandfather, that is, my dad's dad, met Jeffrey one day in a bar. They chatted each other up for a little while, and Jeffrey mentioned that he needed a job. My grandfather offered him a job working as our butler, and he's been here ever since. After he died, Jeffrey stayed to work in this house for my dad. Well, he just feels happy that he's caring for the spawn of his old friend. We always offer to give him a week or so off, but he always refuses."

"Hmm. He must really care for you guys."

"Yeah, he does."

They entered the entertainment room, and found Odd playing a sword fighting game on the Nintendo Wii.

"Take that! And that! And a whole plateful of THIS! And a little more of THAT! HA!"

Jeremie cleared his throat, causing Odd to jump and turn around to face them. He hit the pause button on the game, and looked at them.

"Hey, guys. What's up?"

"From the looks of it, your stamina," remarked Jeremie. "We just thought you ought to know that breakfast is almost ready."

"Great!"

With that, Odd turned the TV off, ran past the two, and sprinted down the hall.

"He's fast when he's hungry," said Jeremie.

Jeremie led Aelita to the guest wing, where he knocked on Ulrich's door.

* * *

Inside Ulrich's room, Ulrich was woken up by the sound of a knock on the door. He stirred slightly, looked at the door, and walked to it. He opened it up enough that he could fit his head through it.

"Hey, Ulrich," said Jeremie. "Jeffrey just wanted you to know that breakfast is about ready.

"Oh. Okay," groaned Ulrich.

Jeremie looked at Ulrich's eyes.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just a little sleepy."

"Oh. Okay. Well, you don't have to worry about it getting cold if you want to sleep a little while longer."

Ulrich nodded, and shut the door quietly. He made his way back to the bed to find Yumi slowly opening her eyes.

"Hey there, Yumes. Sleep well?" asked Ulrich.

Yumi groaned and took hold of Ulrich's hand.

"Would've been better if you were there when I woke up."

She gave his hand a tug, and he fell into the bed next to her. Ulrich planted a kiss on her lips.

"Jeremie says that breakfast is almost ready… wanna get up?"

Yumi returned the kiss.

"Not yet. I need to have my morning coffee."

Ulrich smiled and began kissing Yumi again and a gain.

* * *

Out in the hall, Aelita regrouped with Jeremie, who returned from Ulrich's room.

"Jeremie?"

"Yes, Aelita? What is it?"

"I went to Yumi's room, and she wasn't in there."

"Really?" asked Jeremie. He looked back at the door from whence he came, and chuckled.

"What's funny?" asked Aelita.

"Nothing. Let's head down to breakfast."

The two locked arms once again and returned to the dining room. Jeremie pulled out Aelita's chair and let her sit down before sitting down himself. Aelita chuckled.

"Such a gentleman."

Jeremie blushed and poured himself a glass of orange juice, which Jeffrey had set on the table. He then proceeded to pour Aelita a more generous glass.

"Thanks, Jeremie."

"Anything for you, Aelita."

He tapped glasses with Aelita and took a swig. Not two seconds after, Yumi and Ulrich came down to the dining room.

"Hey, you two. How did you sleep?" asked Aelita.

"Best sleep I've had in a long time," said Ulrich, giving Yumi a kiss on the lips.

Aelita quirked her brow.

"You're a couple, now?"

"Yep, and proud of it," said Yumi, leaning on Ulrich.

"We're happy for you," said Jeremie, smiling. He and Aelita clapped at the newly-formed couple.

"What's the commotion, Master Jeremie?" asked Jeffrey, coming into the dining room holding a tray and being followed by Odd, who sat down at one end of the table.

"Me and Yumi are a couple now, Jeffrey," said Ulrich.

Jeffrey smiled.

"Yet another couple in the house."

He set the tray down, and went to retrieve more food from the kitchen. After he left, Michael entered the room, holding a folded up newspaper.

"Morning, everyone."

"Morning, dad," said Jeremie.

Michael sat down, and unfolded the newspaper.

"'To appreciate,' seven letters. Anybody know any words that would match that?"

The others shrugged.

"How about 'cherish,' Master Michael?" asked Jeffrey, coming in with another tray.

Michael looked at Jeffrey, then back to the newspaper.

"It fits. Thanks, Jeffrey," he said.

"My pleasure, sir," said Jeffrey, re-entering the kitchen.

"So, any plans today?" asked Michael.

"I actually have plans to go into town today, Dad," said Jeremie. "I've got to pick up a few things."

"Can I come with you?" asked Aelita.

"Sure, why not? Oh, and I'll try to be home before it gets too late, Dad," said Jeremie.

"Not a problem. Just one question. I trust you to know not to get something bad, but, do you have enough money to pay for them?"

"Let me check…"

Jeremie fumbled in his pocket for a few seconds, and shrugged.

"Uh… I might need a few more francs. Think I could borrow a few?"

"Sure," said Michael. "I'll give it to you before you leave."

Rachel walked into the room, wiping her glasses.

"Morning, kids," she said.

"Morning, honey," said Michael, standing up and giving his wife a kiss.

Rachel took a seat next to her husband, just as Jeffrey came out of the kitchen holding a tray of mugs and two thermoses.

"Breakfast is served."

He set the glasses on the table, poured some milk for each diner, and pulled the lids off of the trays. He then began to serve each person with eggs and pancakes. After he had served everyone food and drinks, he left the room to let the family and friends enjoy their food.

"So, Jeremie tells me that each of you comes from a different country," said Rachel, biting into a pancake.

"Yeah," said Ulrich. "I'm German, Odd is American, and obviously, Yumi is Japanese."

"Interesting," said Rachel. She smirked. "Let me try something…"

The others sat looking expectant.

"_Von welchem Teil von Deutschland tun Sie kommen, Herr Stern?_" asked Rachel.

Ulrich stood slack-jawed for a moment, but Rachel's question finally registered, and he answered.

"_Gnädige Frau Stern, war ich in München geboren, und meine Familie übersiedelte nach Berlin, als ich 10 Lebensjahre war. Es ist eine schöne Stadt._"

"_Wirklich? Ich sollte dort eines Tages gehen._"

"You speak German very well, Mrs. Belpois," said Ulrich, reverting back to their original language. "How'd you do that?"

"I've been trying a new program on the computer."

Jeremie finished eating his food, and stood from the table.

"This was a great breakfast, Jeffrey. I've just got to grab my jacket, and I'll be ready to roll."

"I'll be out in a while to take you around town," said Jeffrey.

Aelita followed Jeremie to his room, and grabbed her own jacket. They then went out to meet Jeffrey, who was standing at a limousine.

"Where are we going, Jeremie?" asked Aelita.

"Limousine," said Jeremie, opening the door so she could get in.

"Do you have a list of all the things you need, Master Jeremie?" asked Jeffrey.

"All up here," said Jeremie, pointing to his head.

"Where are we going?" asked Aelita.

"Forward," said Jeremie, smirking. Then, seeing Aelita's scowl, he amended, "We're going to the shopping district. I need to pick up a few things. We'll be about fifteen minutes or so getting there. Right, Jeffrey?"

"Right you are, sir."

Jeremie looked out the window to his right as Jeffrey rolled up the barrier between the two compartments.

"What's wrong, Jeremie?"

"It's nothing bad. It's just that, in all honesty, I wish I could have taken you with me by some means other than our limousine. I just feel kind of snobby when I'm riding in this thing."

Aelita flicked his head.

"Ow. What was that for?"

"Jeremie, I'm telling you right now, quit that."

"Quit what?"

"You know that I would never think of you as spoiled, so stop worrying about it. You're a nice, cute, smart, funny boy who just happens to have a lot at his disposal. It's no big deal."

Jeremie smirked.

"Thanks, Aelita. I needed that."

The two conversed until the limo finally came to a stop at the end of a shopping center.

"Aelita? Would you mind staying here? I'll come get you when you can come out."

"But-"

"Please? It's very important."

Aelita looked worried at first, and then smiled.

"Okay. See you when you get back."

Jeremie walked down the sidewalk, and eventually fell out of view of the limo's two occupants.

"Why doesn't Jeremie want me to go with him, Jeffrey?"

"I actually promised him that I wouldn't tell you, miss. All I can say is, nothing bad is happening."

"You're sure?"

"One hundred percent, Miss Aelita."

Aelita smiled.

"Miss Aelita?"

"Yes, Jeffrey?"

"Master Jeremie tells me that you like to mix music."

"Yes, I do."

"Would it be too much trouble if I could hear some of your music?"

"_You_ want to hear some of my music, Jeffrey?"

"Well, I may not look it, Miss Aelita, but I do happen to like new age music. It really only depends on the group. May I hear some of yours?"

"No problem. I just happen to have brought my CDs with me."

She rummage through her handbag, and brought out a case of CDs. She handed one CD to Jeffrey, who put it into the player. The music loaded, and electronic tones could be heard playing through the stereo. Jeffrey flipped through the CDs, playing more of Aelita's mixes, until he had finally listened to them all.

"Well, Miss Aelita, I must say that you have quite the musical affinity."

"Thank you, Jeffrey."

Just then, the door to the limousine opened, and Jeremie was standing in front of her.

"You can come out, now, Aelita. Jeffrey?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Why don't you go ahead and drive home? Me and Aelita can walk back."

"Very well. If you need a ride, however, you know where to find me."

Aelita got out of the limo, Jeremie shutting the door behind her. Jeffrey then went through the roundabout, and drove away. Jeremie took Aelita's hand and led her by the sidewalk to a clothing store.

"What are we doing here, Jeremie?" asked Aelita.

"Buying you a dress."

Aelita had a sparkle in her bright green eyes.

"Really?!"

"Yes."

Aelita through her arms around Jeremie.

"Oh, thank you, Jeremie!"

"I can't breathe!" exclaimed Jeremie.

"Oh, sorry!" replied Aelita, loosening her grip.

Jeremie looked at her.

"Well, go pick something out. I'll wait for you."

"Okay!"

With that, Aelita gave Jeremie a peck on the cheek, and went to pick out a dress. It had been a while since he and Aelita had started dating, and Jeremie still couldn't believe his luck.

"Hey, Jeremie!"

Jeremie turned around and saw the owner of the store looking at him.

"Hey there, Mr. Baptiste. How is it going?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing. What were you doing in the women's clothing section?"

"Oh. I'm shopping for a dress with my girlfriend."

"A girlfriend? Really? I can't wait to meet her."

"She's in the dressing room right now, I think."

"Hey, Jeremie?"

"Or not."

The two turned around to see Aelita standing there. She was wearing a glittery pink dress. It came halfway down her calves, and hugged her curves. It had spaghetti straps that went over the shoulders, and seemed to accent her hair and eyes, for some strange reason.

"What do you think of this?"

"That's beautiful, Aelita!"

Aelita smiled.

"Well, I think we've found the dress," she said. "I'll wait outside for you, okay?"

"Of course."

The two waited until Aelita was out the door before resuming their conversation.

"She's your girlfriend?" asked Mr. Baptiste.

"Yeah. She's really nice."

"And not bad-looking, either! You'd better respect her, Jeremie," said the man, as he dragged the scanner over the tag.

"Oh, I promise you, Mr. Baptiste. You don't have to worry about that."

"Good," said Mr. Baptiste, removing the ink tag. "There you are, kiddo."

"Thanks. I'll see you some other time."

Jeremie exited the store, and found Aelita waiting for him.

"What are we going to do next?" asked Aelita.

"Well, I thought we might just walk around a little. Have you ever been to this part of town?"

"Uh… I can't say I have."

"Good," said Jeremie.

He took her hand, and began leading her around town. The two of them went to a photo booth together, like the one they went to the night Aelita was materialized, and took snapshots of the two of them making weird faces. After that, they went to a small café and conversed together. They were not worried about Xana for once. The only thing they were concerned with was each other. After they ate and drank, they walked toward the park. After a few minutes of walking, they found a park bench and sat down together.

"I think the last time I had so much fun, Jeremie."

Jeremie slipped his arm around Aelita and pulled her close.

"Neither can I."

Aelita rested her head on his shoulder.

"I know you get tired of me saying this, Jeremie, but… I really am grateful for all that you've done for me… thank you."

"Believe me, Aelita… You've done more for me than I could do for you in a dozen lifetimes. Thank you for loving me, Aelita."

"You don't have to thank me for that, Jeremie. You saved me. You go out of your way to do things for me, and you do it without any thought of repayment. You help others before you even think about yourself. You deserve my love."

Jeremie pulled her closer to him, if that was at all possible. He moved his hand down to her side, and began gently squeezing her. He rubbed her up and down in that spot. He knew that she liked that. After a while, they realized that it was getting late, and decided to start walking toward the Belpois house.

It took a half an hour, but the two finally managed to make it back to the Belpois house.

"Mom? Dad?" asked Jeremie.

"Yeah, son?" asked Michael.

"I think that me and Aelita are just going to turn in. We'll see you in the morning, okay?"

"Okay, son. Be sure to have all your bags packed."

"Don't worry. We will."

Aelita and Jeremie went back to their room, and began packing clothes for the trip.

"You know, I have never felt more welcome in any other place than I have in this house," said Aelita.

"Well, you saw for yourself last night that my parents are happy that I'm not just a lonely kid anymore."

After they finished packing, Jeremie brought out the bag he had been carrying with him. Aelita hadn't noticed it until now. He was carrying it the whole time they were out on the town, but she hadn't bothered to ask what was in it. Then seemed as good a time as any.

"What's in that bag, Jeremie?"

Jeremie blushed slightly.

"Well, uh… do you know what day today is?"

"What day?"

Jeremie pulled something out of the box. It was a red, heart-shaped box.

"It's Valentines Day."

"Oh. I hadn't noticed. Thank you, Jeremie."

She opened the box, and examined the many differently-shaped chocolates.

"They look delicious."

"That's not all I got you, Aelita."

Jeremie pulled out a pair of long pink pajamas with a hot pink spaghetti-strap top.

"Oh, Jeremie. This wasn't necessary."

"There's one more thing…"

"What's that?"

Jeremie pulled a small, pink, velvet box out of his pocket, and opened it. Inside was a necklace. It was a heart-shaped charm, with assorted stones on it, which were half pink, and half white. Aelita looked at the necklace, and a tear escaped her eye.

"Oh… Jeremie… it's so beautiful…"

Jeremie gestured for Aelita to turn around, and clasped the necklace around her neck.

"It's not nearly as beautiful as you are…"

He crooked his finger, and put it under her chin. He then pressed his lips to hers. The two became lost in each other's company, and Aelita's left leg seemed to defy gravity all of a sudden. They both lamented the end of the kiss.

"I love you, Aelita…"

"I love you, Jeremie…"

"Happy Valentines Day…"

The two then hugged once more.

To Be Continued…

Yeah. I haven't updated in a while, so I thought I'd give you a big one. I hope you all liked this chap. Happy late Valentines Day to all of you.

Here's the translation for the dialogue between Rachel and Ulrich:

Rachel: What part of Germany do you come from, Mr. Stern?

Ulrich: Madam Belpois, I was born in Munich, and my family moved to Berlin when I was ten years of age. It is a beautiful city.

Rachel: Truly? I should go there someday.


	15. Another Letter

Dear Readers,

There's no sense beating around the bush. I'm very sorry that I've been gone for so long. Life has just been too demanding fo . n e t. I have been swamped what with all the assignments I've had to do, and all the crap that's been piled on me throughout this time.

My junior year had me doing a lot of things that were so strenuous they're better left forgotten as soon as possible. After my junior year was done, summer break started…wait, let me rephrase that. Summer started. Because I didn't have a job, my parents made me and my brother help them around the house with a multitude of things ranging from repair to renovations. I was so worn out after just my first week.

A few weeks into the summer, I had to return to the town where my college is and complete an internship at a local newspaper. I was unpaid, and had to run into the paper to work from 9 to 5 reporting and conducting interviews for stories. Six weeks I had to do that. Fortunately, I managed to get some good clips and am now ready to graduate this year.

However, my senior year has not been any more forgiving. I have had a lot of strenuous assignments, and between that and trying to finish my book (Two or three more chapters to go…fingers crossed!), the last thing I wanted to do was write…for fun.

Add to that little mess, I recently had a close friend of mine agree to start going out with me. We're not exactly boyfriend and girlfriend, but we've had fun together so far. I don't know what she sees in me, but I'm just focused on making whatever we do fun for both of us.

For my relaxation time, I've been getting into some video games. I realized I needed to get with the times and started playing more PS3 video games instead of just lingering on my beloved PS1 and PS2 video games. Plus, there's the PS4 coming out. I'll get to that at some point.

I got Final Fantasy XIII-2 last Christmas, but didn't crack it open until I finally beat Final Fantasy XIII at the end of last year. For my birthday, I got two things that I really wanted to try out. I got Dragon Age II and the Mass Effect Trilogy, and I have to say, while I love Dragon Age II better than the first game, I cannot believe I haven't tried out Mass Effect until very recently. I am not a big fan of shooters, but it was fun plowing through hordes of powerful, evil aliens and robots as Commander Shepard and forming the best crew in the galaxy.

With all that being said, I want you to know that this is not my letter of resignation fro . n e t. While I may have been absent for a long time, I am far from done. I'm hoping to have all my major projects at least mostly finished. I hope you guys will at least allow me enough time to finish my book before I dive back in. I plan to do a whole bunch of things with my stories and hopefully I will have a massive update for all my stories by the time Christmas rolls around.

That being said, while it will still be a while before you see anything happen, I think you've all been patient enough to find out what will happen next in my stories, which stories will be continued (nearly all of them) and a preview of what will happen next. I'll list all my stories now, tell you what my plan is, and give you a little preview of what you can expect.

**My Kingdom Hearts Adventures**

This one is still going through a massive re-write. When I started writing it, I wanted to just include me and my friends in a story of Kingdom Hearts. While that is still my ambition, I think when I first posted it, a lot of my obsessions were colliding with each other and making a mess. I will build on the original premise, but you can expect the new version of My Kingdom Hearts Adventures to be more polished. As I previously stated, I will be having the characters interact with characters both inside and outside the worlds of Square-Enix and Disney. I can't really give you any previews of actual scenes I have written out, but I will go ahead and include some of the worlds that the characters will visit. I can't give you too many details about each world, but I will tell you what I can.

_**Final Fantasy**_: I've been working on an arc in the story where the characters will go back in time to the Final Fantasy characters' original homeworlds. Basically, the story goes that the Final Fantasy characters exposed so far look through a library and find out that they are not who they are supposed to be. They are somewhat like nobodies in that they embody their original self, but are incomplete, causing them to be distorted versions of themselves. What caused this was the destruction of their homeworlds. Now, the main characters must go back in time and fix the damage done to their friends. To do this, time is stopped in the current timeline and the main characters' memories of the Final Fantasy characters are erased. They are then sent on a journey through time to encounter their friends and help them through their respective crises. Expect the group to visit the worlds of at least Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX, X, and XIII to be covered. I'm considering doing V and VI, but still debating about the first four games. Sequel storylines will be included, So Advent Children, X-2, XIII-2; expect their stories to be covered.

_**Devil May Cry**_: The gang will run into Dante in the midst of one of his "odd jobs." They will help him finish with his assignment, fighting through all sorts of demons all the way. Not entirely sure which Dante or which storyline I'll use for this.

_**Code Lyoko**_: The group will find themselves transported to Kadic Academy and help the Lyoko Warriors stop an attack by their enemy, Xana. Obviously, it would be hilariously ridiculous to try to include each and every group member in a trip to Lyoko, so I will limit it to two or three. However, each character will get a Lyoko form. Count on that.

_**Mass Effect**_: This is where it gets kind of tricky. I like to treat each of the worlds visited in Kingdom Hearts as its own universe, and as such, I subscribe to the multiverse theory when I write this story. The group will be transported into an alternate future, where they must help Commander Shepard combat a threat to the galaxy. In case you've played the game and are wondering what path Shepard will take, the Commander Shepard in this story will be a male with the default face, he'll be of the soldier class and his first name will be John. In case you're wondering about his background, here's a little bit from that section of the _Mass Effect_ story:

Unbeknownst to us, while we started our week-long journey to this strange-looking future, a conversation was taking place not far from us, between a high-ranking official, the captain of a space ship, and an admiral.

"Well, what about Shepard?" asked the official. "Earthborn, but no record of his family."

"Doesn't have one," said the captain. "He grew up on the streets. Learned to look out for himself."

"He lost his whole unit on Akuze," said the admiral. "He could have some serious scars."

"Every soldier has scars," said the captain. "Shepard's a survivor."

"Is that the kind of person we want protecting the galaxy?" asked the official.

"That's the only kind of person who can protect the galaxy," said the captain.

"I'll make the call."

He'll also go Full Paragon or at least Paragade. If you're wondering about what decisions he'll make…well, you'll have to read to find out. Other than that, expect all your favorite squad members to show up and participate.

_**Dragon Age**_: Full disclosure, I have no idea how I'm going to make this work. I may start off with the group just meeting Garrett (or Marian; haven't totally decided) Hawke in the streets of Kirkwall. In case you're wondering, s/he'll have the default appearance and be a Mage. S/he'll most likely be a Force and Blood Mage. (Believe me, if any of you are cringing at the idea of having to deal with Carver, I totally sympathize, but it's the only story I'm familiar with.) S/he'll have the Helpful/Diplomatic personality. Any further information you'll have to find by reading the story.

_**Assassin's Creed**_: Believe me, I'm struggling on how I would make this work. I keep thinking perhaps the group will go back into the past and meet the Assassin characters from the games. Whatever I decide, you can bet you'll see plenty of Altair, Ezio and Connor.

_**Metal Gear Solid**_: The group will first encounter Solid Snake on Shadow Moses Island, and despite his protests, help him in destroying the nuclear-equipped robot, Metal Gear REX. I'm taking a page from the Metal Gear book with my stories from here on in: i.e., every time a character is introduced, I will include an author's note, stating who voices that character. I like to put a voice to my character so that people can better imagine what they sound like. Do not expect any assigned voices to change for any of my stories. Indeed, in my author's notes, David Hayter will still be Solid Snake, Cam Clarke will still be Liquid Snake, Christopher Randolph will still be Otacon, Paul Eiding will still be Colonel Roy Campbell and so on. I still need to play the games before I write this part, as so far I've only watched a playthrough of Twin Snakes, but with the Legacy Collection out now, it doesn't seem like that day's very far off.

_**Lord of the Rings**_: The Hobbit? Maybe in Terra, Ven and Aqua's lifetime, but for the core characters, expect them to accompany the Fellowship on their quest to destroy the One Ring.

_**Harry Potter**_: At least a couple of the years. The Harry Potter story is just too epic to pass up as story material.

_**Star Wars**_: As much as I like BioWare's work with the series, don't expect much from the KotOR continuity to sink its roots into MKHA, but I will be giving this a similar treatment to Lord of the Rings. Terra, Ven and Aqua might participate in the events of the prequels and the Clone Wars, but expect the main group to participate in the Rebellion against the Galactic Empire.

_**Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion**_: This one will be interesting. The main characters may work together with both sides of Zero's war with Britannia. I'm still debating about the possibilities, as since I first saw him in the show, I never did like Suzaku.

_**Fullmetal Alchemist**_: As this is a Square-Enix franchise, I think that including it is fair game. Expect Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, and his brother Alphonse Elric to be the party members acquired from this world, but read to find out if I go for the story of the original series, or use the Brotherhood version.

_**Soul Eater**_: The gang will join the top students of the DWMA in stopping the return of the Kishin.

_**Avatar: The Last Airbender**_: The group will go to the Avatar world and join Team Avatar in stopping the Fire Nation from conquering the world.

_**DC and Marvel comics**_: You might see these universes and other comics universes overlapping with each other, but I plan to restrict everything comic-related to one world. Expect the main characters to help, but not as superheroes.

_**Star Ocean**_: As this is a Square-Enix world and an inspiration for one of my books, I will definitely include this in the continuity of my story. Expect the gang to meet beloved Star Ocean characters like Edge Maverick, Albel Nox, Claude C. Kenny, Ronyx J. Kenny, Fayt Leingod, Cliff Fittir and Sofia Esteed.

_**Legend of Dragoon**_: This was the first turn-based RPG I ever got into, and so I feel obligated to include its storyline. The group will come to the world of Endiness and assist the Dragoons in their quest to stop the destruction of the world, participating in the Serdian War, the bandit uprising in Tiberoa, the awakening of the Divine Dragon in Mille Seseau, and much more.

_**Soulcalibur**_: I don't know how I will implement this part of the story, but I hope it will be good. Basically, the same classic struggle you participate in when playing the games: Two swords, sought by several people, only one may possess both. I'm on the fence about who all I should include. I kind of wonder if I should include Patroklos and Pyrrha, but I don't know if I should include any of the guest characters, i.e. Link from _Legend of Zelda_, Heihachi Mishima from _Tekken_,

_**Tales Series**_: I've recently got addicted to JRPGs, particularly the Tales video games by Namco Bandai. You can expect the main characters to encounter and interact with the characters of several Tales games. The ones I intend to include are Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Graces. I have to play more before I make any decisions about additional titles.

_**Eternal Sonata**_: The characters arrive in the world of Frederic Chopin's dream and join Frederic and his friends in stopping Count Waltz from poisoning his subjects. They'll help Frederic find out whether this is really a dream or his new reality.

_**Rogue Galaxy**_: I just thought that this RPG was incredibly well done and had a fantastic story. I think that it will make for an interesting part in this story.

_**Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! **_**and **_**Digimon**_: These series have always held a special place in my heart. However, if they make it into my story, you could probably expect a very brief visit to those worlds.

Some franchises that I've thought of but wouldn't know how to make them work include Avatar (James Cameron), Dragon Ball, Gundam, Cardcaptors, Naruto, One Piece, Zoids, Star Trek, Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Transformers, Chronicles of Narnia, Elfen Lied, Monster Rancher and Ninja Turtles.

Apart from all of the aforementioned franchises, there are tons of video game and anime ideas I've been thinking of toying with. I am very interested in what you all have to think about all the inclusions in the story, and I encourage you to send me a PM. I will also put a poll on my author page, and I invite any and all to vote for your favorites on the page.

**Code: Insomnia**

It goes without saying that this is one of my most popular stories. I really just wanted to write my own take on the AelitaxJeremie pairing. I love the support that everybody's given me. However, what's been holding me up is that I've made a lot of mistakes with this story, which ended up costing me a lot of readers, and a couple of the things I've done in the story since then have felt like mistakes. I feel I could use a bit of direction on this story from you, the readers. If you have any suggestions as to how the rest of this story should go, please share it. I may only update it one or two more times, but if you feel it should be updated more than that, please let me know. The next chapter I do will probably have the gang on their way to Canada for their relaxation, and involve a lot of hilarious hijinks, including a small accident with a fishing pole.

**Code: House**

I believe I'm pretty much going to drop this story altogether. As previously stated, when I first came up with the idea for this story, my obsession with House, M.D. and my obsession with Code: Lyoko were involved in a terrible car crash. As previously stated, I've had offers to adopt this story, and I may take you up on those offers, but if you do so, I have one stipulation: You make it a JxA piece, or at least a couple that has been established (not officially, but we all know) in the show, i.e., Jeremie and Aelita, or Yumi and Ulrich. That's my only term. Otherwise, go ape.

**Keitaro Urashima: Burn Notice**

The last time I addressed this story, I said I would take a closer look at Burn Notice in order to get a better idea how the story would go. I still have interest in it, but I probably won't update it as soon as MKHA, Code: Insomnia or Assassin's Creed: Elf Song. However, the good news is, my roommate from my freshman year is letting me use his Netflix account and a few seasons of Burn Notice are available for instant streaming, so we'll see how that goes.

**Assassin's Creed: Elf Song**

You would not believe how much fun I've had writing out this story and scenarios for it. I'm drawing on a lot of inspiration from this story. I've been inspired by Hellsing Ultimate, Tales of Vesperia, Mass Effect and many others for elements of this story. That being said, you can rest assured that this story will very much be Assassin's Creed and Elfen Lied. At one point, I was considering doing a sequel to this fic where it's a cross over with Metal Gear. That one is still debatable. And one of the things holding me up from doing that is the fact that I don't know much about Metal Gear. I would like to know what you guys think should happen with this story. As for what I have planned, the next chapter I write for this will have the gang meeting Mayu, a young girl who's been living on the streets. Kaede will have a run-in with the research institute, though I have no idea how that will go. Perhaps another intervention from our hooded figure?

**The Fullmetal Titan**

I loved where this story went at first, but I'm kind of wondering if I should re-do it now. A lot of the stuff in it just doesn't make sense and seems kind of hastily thrown together. Whenever I update it, though, you can probably expect it to be all done at once. Perhaps instead of the FMA characters being in Jump City, the reverse happens? Let me know what you guys think.

**Fullmetal Alchemist: The Second World War**

Okay, I definitely realize I haven't done a lot with this. Even though I still have stuff to research, my basic idea was to have the next chapter consist of the Elric Brothers trying to find a way back home while at the same time plotting a mission to capture the uranium bomb and bring it back to Amestris. You could probably expect an update on this second latest.

If you have any suggestions about the content of my stories, or if you want to address anything I've mentioned in my exposition to you, please do let me know. Send me a private message.

Your obedient servant,

cdc100


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